GEORGE  WASHINGTON, 


The  Ideal  Patriot. 


BY 


REV.  EDWARD  M.  TAYLOR,  D.  D. 


WITH  INTRODUCTION  BY 
EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  D.  D. 


CINCINNATI:  CURTS  &  JENNINGS. 

NEW  YORK :  EATON  &  MAINS. 

1897. 


COPYRIGHT 
BY  CURTS  &  JENNINGS 

1897. 


<J 
INTRODUCTION. 


BOSTON,  MASS., 

I  AM  most  glad  that  my  friends  of  the 
Epworth  League  propose  to  study 

with  some  care  the  life  and  character 
of  Washington,  and  have  so  good  a 
chance  to  do  so. 

No  American  boy  or  girl,  man  or 
woman,  is  equipped  for  life,  who  has  not 
a  fair  acquaintance  with  the  man  Wash- 
ington. 

, 

Do  not  make  of  him  an  idol,  but  think 

of  him  as  a  man. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 
3 


973630 


FOREWORD. 


THERE  ^axfe-^early  five  hundred 
.Biographies  of  George  Washing- 
ton  written;  they  are  published  in 
almost^rvery  modern  language.  The 
story  of  his  life  has  also  been  set  in  the 
classic  forms  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
tongues. 

f"  His  portraits  adorn  our  Legislative 
Malls,  and  hang  upon  the  walls  of  our 
public  schools  and  libraries. 

More  than  two  hundred  places  in  the 
United  States  of  America  bear  his  name. 
The  facts  of  his  life  have  all  been  gath- 
ered, and  woven  by  genius  into  enduring 
forms. 

Why  write  another  book  about  Wash- 
ington?    The  answer. lies  close  at  hand. 
Because' the  people  .da.-not  know  George 
Washington. 
4 


FOREWORD.  5 

His  noble,  human  life  is  not  so  much 
"first  in  the  hearts  of  his. countrymen"  as 
one  might  suppose. 

The  only  right  this  book  has  to  exist- 
ence, is  the  sincere  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  author  to  enlist  the  interest  of  the  ris- 
ing generation  in  a  thoughtful  study  of 
the  character  of  George  Washington. 

"I  am  a  man;  I  consider  none  of  the 
incidents  which  befall  my  fellow-creatures 
to  be  matters  of  unconcern  to  me."  These 
words  of  the  Roman  poet,  Terence,  fit- 
tingly describe  the  straightforward,  mag- 
nanimous, and  manly  character  of  George 
Washington.  Circumstances  decreed  that 
he  should  learn  the  lessons  of  life  from 
men,  rather  than  books.  His  early  train- 
ing was  of  such  a  nature  as  to  put  him  in 
the  closest  sympathy  with  men  and  affairs. 
In  character-study  he  was  a  master.  In 
his  long  and  trying  career  as  general  and 
President,  he  made  but  one  mistake  in 
his  estimate  qfjnea-.  Washington  was  de- 
ceived in  Benedict  Arnold. 


6  FOREWORD. 

No  man  in  the  history  of  our  country 
has  left  such  wealth  of  materials  from 
which  to  draw  the  true  picture  of  his  life 
as  George  Washington.  He  began  the 
keeping  of  a  diary  in  his  sixteenth  year, 
and  kept  it  up,  with  but  few  breaks,  to 
the  end  of  his  life,  covering  a  period  of 
fifty-one  years.  His  position  laid  upon 
him  the  burden  of  a  large  correspondence. 
He  has  been  called  "the  most  felicitous 
letter-writer  of  the  ages."  He  scrupu- 
lously preserved  copies  of  his  letters  dur- 
ing his  public  career.  Careful  students 
of  these  manuscripts  truthfully  declare 
they  are  his  most  complete  biography." 

Notwithstanding  these  fac^-ttSe  mdrT\ 

fnn    lint;  hppn^s»rKtriprg-pH    in  the  I 

ome  eulogies  of  the  hero  Washington/ 
This  practical  man  of  affairs,  in  whosfe 
moral  and  intellectual  make-up  there  was) 
no  moonshine,  has  been  placed  upon  thy 
lonely  height   of  flawless  greatness,  4^r 
above  the  contemplation  of  the  commoji 
tide  of  humanity.     The  satiric  tempera- 


FOREWORD.  7 

ment  finds  in  this  picture  of  Washington 
abundant  materials  for  work;  while  to  or- 
dinary mortals  it  reveals  Washington  as 
a  character 

"Too  bright  and  good 
For  human  nature's  daily  food." 

It  must  be  said  in  this  connection  that  of 
late  an  earnest  effort  is  being  put  forth 
to  present  Washington  in  his  true  char- 
acter as  a  man.  Dr.  Edward  Everett 
Hale  *  and  Mr.  Paul  Leicester  Ford  f 
have  performed  a  worthy  and  lasting  serv- 
ice for  posterity  in  the  careful  studies  they 
have  made  of  the  Washington  manu- 
scripts, presenting  the  results  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  greatest  American  is  per- 
mitted to  speak  for  himself. 

An  English  artist  was  commissioned  to 
paint  the  portrait  of  one  of  the  Georges 
when  he  was  the  occupant  of  the  British 
throne.  In  the  finished  picture  the  king 
was  so  profusely  surrounded  by  sun- 

*  "  Oeorge  Washington  Studied  Anew." 
f  "  The  True  George  Washington." 


8  FOREWORD. 

flowers  and  tulips  that  very  little  of  the 
royal  personage  could  be  seen  by  the  ob- 
server. In  some  such  fashion  the  char- 
acter of  the  man  George  Washington  has 
been  obscured  by  those  who  have  sought 
to  do  him  honor  by  their  services.  We 
have  the  "traditional  Washington,"  the 
"idealized  Washington,"  the  "poetic 
Washington;"  and  the  pious  myth-mak- 
ers, headed  by  the  Rev.  Mason  Weems, 
Washington's  first  biographer,  have  even 
dared  to  starch  and  stiffen  this  plain,  hon- 
est Virginia  planter  and  statesman  with 
their  priggish  man-millinery,  until  among 
certain  classes  his  name  awakens  no  en- 
thusiasm, but  rather  calls  forth  the  cheap 
jests  so  common  in  the  "funny  column" 
of  our  newspapers.  ^  "^  <^ 

The  '^chejTy-tree"  myth  has  possessed 
such  remarkablevitality  that  even  to-day 
it  is  a  favorite  proof-text  quoted  to_cJiilz_ 
,tlren  when  the  natural  heart  is  disposed 
to  let  truth  live  on  debatable  ground,  and 
our  enterprising  confectioners  ornament 


FOREWORD.  g 

their  lion=bon--baxes  with  embossed  im^ 
agp.s  of  that  mythical  "little,  hairnet."  as 
a  guaj^mteefoj^mgxandy- within.  Little 
wonder  that  in  our  childhood  we  found 
it  difficult  to  ]Tke  this  juvenile  Yicgmia 
prig-as  he  was  represented  to  us  in  his 
faultless,  moral  make-up.  Our  sympa- 
thies go  out  toward  the  precocious  little 
girl  who,  when  taken  to  task  by  her 
mother  for  telling  an  untruth,  after  re- 
ceiving the  information  that  "no  liars  ever 
go  to  heaven,  George  Washington-rie-ver 
toW-a-4i€,"  made  this  deliberate  answer: 
"Mamma,  how  lonesome  it  must  be  in 
heaven  with  only  God  and  George  Wash-, 
ington!" 

From  another  point  of  view,  Wash- 
ington has  been  shut  off  from  the  sym- 
pathies of  the  common  people.  This 
wrong  has  also  been  done  in  the  house 
of  his  friends.  The  grandiloquent 
logics  of  Fourth  of  July  orations,  and  the 
overstrained  rhetoric  of  many  of  his  early 
biographers,  have  placed  him  upon  the 


io  FOREWORD. 

pedestal  of  a  demigod.  Some  one  has 
said  that  "four  generations  of  statesmen 
have  enshrouded  him  in  mummy  clothes." 
It  is  very  easy  to  have  our  sense  of 
brotherhood  blunted,  and  our  feeling  of 
companionship  obliterated,  when  we  are 
forced  to  look  at  a  human  b^in^r  tl-irnngrh 
thjs__gkuidy^...  rhetorical  wrappage.  The 
real  George  Washington  is  but  dimly  seen 
standing  in  the  background  obscured  by 
shadows. 

There   is  a  legend   among  the   New 
York  Indians,  setting  forth  in  dramatic 
form  this  idea  of  the  traditional  Washing- 
ton.   He  alone  of  all  white  men,  they  sa 
has  been  admitted  to  the  Indian  heaven., 
[e  lives  in  a  great  palace  built  like  a  fort. 
All  the  Indians  as  they  go  to  heaven  pass  4. 
by,  and  Washington  himself  is  in  his  uni-  \ 
form,  a  sword  at  his  side,  walking  to  and 
fperr""*rhey  bow  reverently  with  great  hu- 
(niility.     He  returns  the  salute,  but  says 
/nothing.     He  is  too  much  lifted  up  to 

speak. 
\L 


FOREWORD.  n 

By  such  methods  has  the  "Father  of 
his  Country"  been  treated  through  the 
well-meaning  intentions  of  his  friends, 
tha.t  practical,  serious  men  now  write: 
/Washington  is  likely  to  become  a  mere 
nest;"  "George  Washington  is  now  only  a 
Weel-engraving."  In  this  year  of  grace, 
1897,  the  governor  of  one  of  our  great 
States  was  politely  requested  to  furnish 
a  sentiment  on  Washington's  birthday. 
In  answer  to  that  request,  he  deliberately 
wrote  these  words:  "We  're  living  at  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  we  are 
too  busy  to  write  sentiments  about  men 
who  have  been  dead  a  hundred  years." 
It  will  be  a  sorry  day  for  America  when 
the  leaders  in  national  affairs  have  come 
to  the  point  of  regarding  George  Wash- 
ington as  a  "back  number." 

"As  stands  the  pyramid  a  mystery, 
Cleaving  wedge-like  the  misty  realm  of  time, 
And  hides  within  its  depth  the  unknown  king 
'T  was  built  to  memorize, -^so^ommon 
Covers  with  cloudy  fiction  all  the  real  man, 
And  leaves  a  shadow  to  the  worshiper.* 


12  FOREWORD. 

In  an  atmosphere  composed  of  such 
trifling  and  traditional  ingredients  many 
of  us  received  our  first  impressions  of 
George  Washington,  "the  noblest  figure 
standing  in  the  forefront  of  our  Nation's 
history."  The  words  of  our  latest  his- 
torian, -Mr.  MrMasfpjvljirp_vynrthy  pfnnr 
attention  at  this  point:  "General  Was! 
ington  is  known  to  us,  and  President 
Washington;  but  George  Washington  is 
an  unknown  man." 

In  the  study  I  have  been  commissioned 
to  make  of  this  imperial  man,  the  principal 
end  to  be  attained  is  to  tell  the  story  of 
Washington's  life  so  that  the  reader  may 
be  in  constant  touch  with  him  as  a  man. 
To  lay  bare  the  fact,  if  possible,  that  all 
that  General  Washington  and  President 
Washington  did  for  our  country  came  out 
of  the  character  of  George  Washington 
the  man.  The  significance  of  his  life  is,  in 
a  measure,  lost  to  posterity  if  we  ignore 
the  truth  that  what  Washington  did  for 
his  country  is  a  like  possibility  for  every 


FOREWORD.  13 

American  citizen,  according  to  the  meas- 
ure of  the  stewardship  committed  to  his 
care. 

All  that  George  Washingtonsxvef\b'e- 
came  was  brought  about  through  me/iis- 
cipline  and  development  of  his  better  self. 
He  was  a  great  master  of  affairs,  but  his 
greatest  victory  was  the  mastery  he  ob- 
tained over  himself.  Out  of  such  disci- 
pline  came  the  clear-headed,  clean^- 
hearted  man,  the  successful  planter,  the 
genial  neighbor,  the  devoted  husband,  the 
ideal  patriot,  the  brave  soldier,  and 
incorruptible  statesman.  ''"We  must  Re- 
member that  when  Washington  received 
his  commission  as  commander-in-chief  of 
the  Continental  army  he  was  forty-three 
years  of  age.  In  the  stirring  scenes  of  the 
Revolution  he  seems  to  have  sprung  sud- 
denly into  world-wide  notoriety,  like  Mi- 
nerva into  "full-orbed  life  from  the  head 
of  Jupiter."  But  behind  this  general  on 
horseback  were  the  formative  periods  and 
processes  of  his  manhood.  All  the  ele- 


14  FOREWORD. 

merits  entering  into  that  character  of  im- 
perial leadership  and  organizing  skill  had 
hardened  into  moral  muscle  and  intellect- 
ual fiber  before  he  received  his  commis- 
sion. This  work  was  accomplished  be- 
tween the  years  1732  and  1775,  amid 
scenes  and  surroundings  of  Colonial  Vir- 
ginia. Botanists  tell  us  that  in  studying 
the  life  of  a  plant  we  should  enter  the  zone 
of  its  natural  abode.  To  push  our  inves- 
tigations of  its  nature  amid  the  artificial 
surroundings  of  the  conservatory  is  to  do 
the  plant  a  wrong,  and  obtain  for  our- 
selves only  partial  knowledge.  It  is  cer- 
tainly a  wise  method  in  the  study  of  men. 
Clothing  this  truth  in  another  form,  we 
might  say,  as  the  water  of  certain  rivers 
derives  its  coloring  matter  from  the  rocks 
and  soils  through  which  it  percolates  far 
away  in  the  mountain  gorges,  so  the  man 
Washington  assimilated  certain  elements 
found  in  the  social,  intellectual,  and  po- 
litical life  of  the  Old  Dominion. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I.                         PAGE. 
THE  OLD  DOMINION, 17 

CHAPTER  II. 
CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN, 28 

CHAPTER  III. 
ANCESTRY  AND  BIRTH, 46 

CHAPTER  IV. 
BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LIFE, 56 

CHAPTER  V. 
SCHOOL  DAYS,     71 

CHAPTER  VI. 
LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST, 88 

CHAPTER  VII. 
TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER, 104 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

UNDER  FIRE, 121 

15 


1 6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX.                          PAGE. 
MARRIAGE  AND  MOUNT  VERNON, 145 

CHAPTER  X. 
STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST 165 

CHAPTER  XI. 
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF  AND  PRESIDENT,   .   .   .  184 

CHAPTER  XII. 
WASHINGTON'S  VISION  OF  THE  WEST,   ...  213 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
WORDS  OK  WASHINGTON, 230 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
SAYINGS  OF  WASHINGTON, 261 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 


i. 

THE   OLD    DOMINION. 

THE  social  and  political  institutions 
of  America,  founded  by  English 
Colonists  in  the  New  World,  are  the 
joint  products  of  two  distinct  centers  of 
population — New  England  and  the  Old 
Dominion.  Plymouth  in  Massachusetts, 
and  Jamestown  in  Viriginia,  are  the  two 
memorable  spots  in  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere, where  were  planted  and  nurture^ 
the  men  and  principles  which  have  pro- 
duced the  American  Commonwealth. 

The  history  of  New  England  and  of 
her  principles  has  been  fully  and  ably  writ- 

17 


i&  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ten.  Nobly  has  the  scholarship  of  New 
England  paid  its  debt  of  gratitude  to  the 
land  of  the  Pilgrim  and  the  Puritan.  Her 
literary  sons  and  daughters  have  pro- 
duced an  historic  literature,  in  which  the 
story  of  her  development  has  been  faith- 
fully recorded  from  her  Colonial  days  to 
the  present  hour.  The  history  of  the  Old 
Dominion  has  been  unworthily  written. 
The  one  hundred  and  two  Cavalier  Colo- 
nists, who  planted  the  Jamestown  Settle- 
ment in  1607,  have  had  scant  justice 
from  the  pen  of  the  historian.  The  de- 
velopment of  this  colony  of  Royalists  into 
the  staunch  democracy  of  Revolutionary 
times  is  an  interesting  and  suggestive 
study,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  Virginia, 
the  great  historic  Commonwealth  of  the 
South,  which  stood  as  the  companion  of 
Massachusetts  in  the  Colonial,  Revolu- 
tionary, and  Constitutional  periods  of  our 


THE  OLD  DOMINION. 

country's  development,  shall  yet  have  her 
story  told  by  as  able  pens  and  sympathetic 
hearts,  as  those  who  have  done  a  like 
service  for  New  England. 

The  cause  of  this  neglect  is  easily  dis- 
covered, when  we  carefully  contrast  the 
conditions  existing  in  those  primitive 
days  of  Virginia  life  with  the  existing 
conditions  in  New  England  life.  The 
two  Colonies  were  alike  only  in  their  com- 
mon heritage  of  suffering;  both  were 
nearly  destroyed  through  epidemic,  dis- 
aster, and  massacre. 

The  Cavaliers  were  intense  Royalists, 
while  the  New  Englanders  were  turbu- 
lent yet  pious  Roundheads.  In  religion, 
the  Virginians  were  Episcopalians,  and 
zealous  advocates  of  the  union  of  Church 
and  State;  while  the  New  England  Colo- 
nists were  Congregationalists,  whose 
slogan  was  "a  Church  without  a  bishop, 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

and  a  State  without  a  king."  In  social 
life  the  Cavalier  was  a  patrician.  In  New 
England  the  Pilgrim  was  a  plebeian.  In 

•        i 

Virginia  the  almighty  dollar  was  the 
potent  factor  in  the  scheme  of  coloniza- 
tion. In  New  England  it  was  religious 
enthusiasm  and  liberty  of  conscience. 
*  The  settlement  at  Jamestown  was  the 
earliest  English  colony  on  the  American 
continent.  Its  roots  were  planted  in  the 
New  World's  soil  thirteen  years  before 
the  Mayflower  brought  the  Pilgrims  to 
Plymouth  Rock.  These  Virginia  Colo- 
nists set  sail  from  London  on  December 
19,  1606.  The  fleet  consisted  of  three 
vessels,  bearing  the  names  of  the  Discov- 
ery, the  Goodspeed,  and  the  Susan  Content. 
The  entire  passenger  list  numbered  one 
hundred  and  two  souls.  As  they  moved 
down  the  Thames  and  arched  their  sails 
for  the  far-off  shores  of  the  New  World, 


THE  OLD  DOMINION.  -          21 

all  London  turned  out  to  wish  them  God- 
speed. Special  prayer  services  were  held 
in  the  churches  on  their  behalf,  and  many 
of  the  poets  eulogized  in  song  their  ad- 
venturous enterprise.  Here  is  a  sample 
from  the  pen  of  Drayton: 

"You  brave  heroic  minds, 

Worthy  your  country's  name, 

That  honor  still  pursue; 
Whilst  loitering  hinds 

Lurk  here  at  home  with  shame, 
Go  and  subdue. 

"  And  cheerfully  at  sea 

Success  you  still  entice 
To  get  the  pearls  and  gold, 
And  ours  to  hold 

Virginia, 
Earth's  only  paradise." 

After  a  five-months'  voyage  over  the 
Atlantic,  the  three  ships  dropped  their 
anchors  in  James  River,  on  the  I3th  of 
May,  1607.  True  to  their  Cavalier  tra- 
ditions, they  named  the  port  of  their  land- 


22  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ing  Jamestown,  after  King  James  I,  the 
then  reigning  king  of  England. 

In  imagination  let  us  bridge  the  chasm 
of  time  that  yawns  between  the  present 
hour  and  that  far-away  bright  May-day 
of  1607.  An  Indian  will  take  us  in  his 
canoe  out  to  these  vessels  as  they  swing 
at  their  anchor-chains  in  the  tide  currents 
of  the  great  river.  We  are  permitted  to 
go  on  board  each  vessel,  and  make  our 
tour  of  inspection.  Some  interesting  and 
suggestive  revelations  are  in  store  for  us. 
In  the  sailing  list  we  find  a  strange  classi- 
fication of  passengers.  It  reads  as  fol- 
lows: "Gentlemen,  carpenters,  laborers, 
gold-refiners,  jewelers,  and  one  per- 
fumer." A  closer  analysis  of  the  list  re- 
veals the  fact  that  more  than  one-half  of 
the  entire  number  are  listed  as  "gentle- 
men"— that  term  in  those  times  indicat- 


THE  OLD  DOMINION.  23 

ing  a  man  who  thought  it  degrading  to 
engage  in  manual  labor. 

As  we  look  shoreward,  we  see  the 
trackless  forest  pressing  to  the  very  edge 
of  tide-water,  portions  of  which  must  be 
cleared  away;  a  virgin  soil  to  be  broken 
for  purposes  of  agriculture;  wharves  to 
be  constructed,  and  houses  to  be  built 
with  timber  from  the  stump;  the  endur- 
ance of  hardships  and  deprivations  pecu- 
liar to  frontier  life;  and,  hanging  over  all, 
the  serious  dangers  from  the  prowling 
savage.  Are  these  "gentlemen"  Colo- 
nists equal  to  the  herculean  task?  The 
outlook  is  full  of  the  omens  of  failure. 

There  is  another  discovery  to  be  made 
in  relation  to  this  Virginia  Colony — a 
discovery  which  is  little  short  of  startling, 
in  view  of  all  it  portends.  There  is  not  a 
woman  to  be  found  in  the  whole  com- 


24  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

pany.  By  all  laws  governing  human  de- 
velopment in  any  department  of  our 
world's  life,  this  band  of  Colonists  is 
doomed  to  failure,  unless  the  ennobling 
influence  of  woman  is  brought  into  co- 
operation with  their  efforts.  Of  all  men  in 
the  world,  how  could  an  Englishman  hope 
to  attain  any  success  without  the  nucleus 
of  his  home  life?  That  has  been  the  chief 
secret  of  his  invincible  colonizing  power. 
His  march  to  victory  has  been  secured  by 
the  fact  that  he  carried  his  home  with 
him  wherever  he  went.  Very  early  in  the 
history  of  our  race  the  Almighty  pro- 
nounced a  bachelor  a  failure,  and  hast- 
ened to  relieve  the  situation  by  creating 
a  woman  as  "an  helpmeet"  for  him  in  the 
serious  work  of  life.  A  discriminating 
writer  puts  the  whole  matter  in  these 
forceful  words:  "What  could  we  expect 
from  a  hundred  and  two  old  bachelors — 


THE  OLD  DOMINION.  25 

a  community  of  bachelors?  It  is  as  much 
as  society  can  do  to  get  along  with  one 
here  and  there  in  the  community;  a  col- 
ony of  bachelors  never  carried  any  cause 
on  earth  to  a  successful  conclusion,  and 
never  will." 

Events  in  the  Colony  soon  began  to 
shape  themselves  according  to  existing 
conditions;  the  process  of  disintegration 
set  in,  and  the  men  were  rapidly  taking  on 
the  nature  of  savages  in  their  treatment 
of  each  other.  Through  the  influence  of 
the  beautiful  Indian  girl,  Pocahontas,  the 
Colony  was  saved  from  extinction.  The 
lax  condition  of  affairs  became  known  in 
England,  and  wise  measures  were  sug- 
gested and  carried  out  by  men  upon 
whose  hearts  the  interests  of  the  scheme 
lay  heavily.  Virginia  must  be  looked 
upon  as  home  by  the  adventurers.  If  the 
plantation  were  ever  to  become  a  success- 


26  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ful  enterprise,  the  double  magnet  of  wife 
and  child  must  hold  these  discouraged 
emigrants  to  the  arduous  work  of  coloni- 
zation. Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  in  a  wise 
stroke  of  statemanship,  devised  a  plan 
whereby  one  hundred  fair  daughters,  with 
irreproachable  characters,  should  volun- 
teer to  go  out  to  Virginia  from  the 
Mother  Country,  with  the  distinct  under- 
standing that  they  were  to  become  the 
wives  of  the  struggling  Colonists.  The 
expense  of  their  voyage  and  outfit  was 
considerable,  and  this  was  to  be  met  by 
those  who  selected  them  for  wedlock,  the 
price  being  fixed  at  one  hundred  and 
twenty  pounds  of  tobacco — about  eighty 
dollars  in  American  money. 

The  scheme  is  apt  to  strike  the  mind 
of  the  humorist  as  furnishing  material  for 
a  new  "Comedy  of  Errors."  To  the  con- 
servative mind  of  to-day  it  is  highly  sea- 


THE  OLD  DOMINION.  27 

soned  with  the  commercial  view  of  mar- 
riage. It,  however,  saved  the  Colony  of 
Virginia  from  extinction,  giving  it  a  new 
lease  of  life,  and  starting  it  upon  a  pros- 
perous career. 

This  shipload  of  English  "maids,"  as 
they  are  called  by  the  old  chronicler,  ar- 
rived in  Jamestown  twelve  years  after  the 
landing  of  the  original  Colonists.  The 
record  of  the  time  states  that  within 
twenty-four  hours  after  their  landing  the 
majority  of  these  maidens  had  become  the 
wives  of  the  Colonists;  the  minister  of  the 
Colony,  it  is  said,  making  a  "snug  little 
fortune."  It  is,  I  believe,  the  only  day 
in  the  history  of  America  in  which  the 
office  of  a  parson  may  be  said  to  have  been 
tempting  to  the  candidate  in  the  matter  of 
dimes  and  dollars. 


CHAPTEH  II. 
CAVALIER   AND   PURITAN. 

THE  statement  has  already  been  made 
that  the  history  of  New  England  has 
been  fully  written,  while  that  of  Vir- 
ginia has  been  but  partially  depicted.  The 
cause  of  this  is  easily  explained  by  the 
scientific  doctrine  of  conformity  to  type. 
It  will  serve  our  purpose  to  compare  the 
manners  and  laws  of  our  Colonial  fore- 
fathers, as  represented  by  these  Cavalier 
and  Puritan  communities.  Their  social 
and  political  ideas  were  entirely  different 
before  they  united  in  the  general  round-up 
to  secure  American  Independence. 

At  no  point  in  their  history  is  the  con- 
trast greater  than  in  their  respective 
opinion^  concerning  popular  education. 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          29 

In  New  England  the  school-house  stood 
side  by  side  with  the  Church;  they  were 
the  two  pillars,  Jachin  and  Boaz,  of  Puri- 
tan institutions.  In  1640,  just  twenty 
years  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth  Rock, 
the  New  England  Colony  had  created  a 
university.  In  1647  we  find  an  established 
system  of  education  throughout  her  bor- 
ders. A  touching  picture  presents  itself 
as  we  look  backward  to  those  early  years 
of  New  England  life,  where  the  Pilgrims, 
impoverished  as  to  resources  and  igno- 
rant of  New  World  conditions,  with 
"short  allowance  of  victual  and  plenty  of 
nothing  but  gospel,"  were  forced  to  take 
lessons  in  agriculture  from  the  Indian 
brave,  Tisquantum,  who  tells  them  that 
Indian  corn,  which  was  to  be  their  main 
dependence,  "should  be  sown  when  the 
leaves  of  the  oak  were  as  big  as  the  ears 
of  a  mouse/'  This  sorely-tried  and  over- 


30  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

taxed  Colonist  reveals  the  force  of  his 
convictions  when  we  see  him  part  with 
his  last  cent,  paying  it  to  his  township  as 
a  school-tax;  formulating  his  conscience 
into  a  simple  yet  severe  law,  reading  as 
follows:  "Every  township,  after  the  Lord 
hath  increased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty 
households,  shall  appoint  one  to  teach  all 
children  to  read  and  write,  and  when  any 
town  shall  increase  to  the  number  of  a 
hundred  families,  they  shall  set  up  a  com- 
mon school;  the  masters  thereof  being 
able  to  instruct  youth,  so  far  as  they  may- 
be fitted  for  the  university."  Here  we 
uncover  the  springs  of  New  England's 
literary  fountains. 

In  the  early  life  of  the  Old  Dominion 
a  different  condition  of  affairs  existed. 
There  is  little  indication  that  the  planters 
of  Virginia  had  any  sympathy  with  the 
cause  of  popular  edvication.  Few  of  the 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          31 

people  thought  that  "becoming  a^mere 
scholar"  was  "a  desirable  education  for 
a  gentleman."  The  gentleman  was  to 
"become  acquainted  with  men  and  things, 
rather  than  books."  In  1671,  when  the 
white  population  of  Virginia  numbered 
forty  thousand  souls,  the  Colonial  gov- 
ernor, Berkeley;  was  willing  to  thank  God 
that  they  had  "no  free  schools  nor  print- 
ing," and  hoped  that  "we  shall  not  have 
any  these  hundred  years,  for  learning  has 
brought  disobedience,  heresy,  and  sects 
into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged 
them  with  libels  against  the  best  govern- 
ment. God  keep  us  from  both!"  ^Dur- 
ing the  first  fifty  years  of  Virginia's  his- 
tory there  were  no  public  schools,  and  at 
the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution,  in 
1775,  there  was  scarcely  any  system  of 
public  education  within  the  borders  of  the 
Colony.  When  the  Virginia  Commis- 


32  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

sioners  interviewed  the  attorney-general 
of  Charles  II  in  reference  to  an  appropri- 
ation for  the  cause  of  learning  and  relig- 
ion in  Virginia,  they  were  answered  with 
an  oath:  "Go  home  and  grow  tobacco." 
This  was  popular  sentiment  in  Virginia 
for  more  than  a  hundred  years. 

It  will  best  serve  our  purpose  at  this 
point  to  take  into  consideration  the 
Royalist  inclinations  of  these  Virginia 
Colonists.  There  is  no  doubt  that  at  heart 
the  great  body  of  the  population  of  Vir- 
ginia were  in  full  sympathy  with  the  king 
at  the  time  of  the  English  Revolution 
under  Cromwell.  The  origin  of  the  term 
"Old  Dominion,"  by  which  Virginia  is 
known  to  this  day,  indicates  that  the  sen- 
timent of  Virginia  was  decidedly  on  the 
side  of  royalty  in  those  stormy  times.  The 
execution  of  Charles  I  was  treason  ac- 
cording to  the  vote  of  the  Virginia  Bur- 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          33 

gesses  in  1649.  This  vote  fixed  a  penalty 
upon  those  who  should,  "by  words  or 
speeches,  endeavor  to  insinuate  any 
doubt,  scruple,  or  question  concerning 
the  right  of  His  Majesty  that  now  is  to 
the  Colony  of  Virginia."  The  king  the 
Virginians  thus  recognized  was  the  ex- 
iled son  of  the  beheaded  Charles  I,  who 
had  sought  refuge  on  the  Continent,  but 
these  Virginians  recognized  him  as  the 
ruler,  Charles  II,  by  "Divine  right"  King 
of  England  and  of  all  other  of  His  Maj- 
esty's dominions  the  moment  his  father's 
head  rolled  from  the  scaffold. 

It  was  dangerous  work  thus  to  deal 
with  Cromwell;  for  the  great  ruler  had  a 
strong  arm,  and  he  could  reach  very  far — 
even  across  the  Atlantic.  His  power  he 
soon  put  into  operation,  and  sent  one  of 
his  warships  to  Virginia,  forcing  the  Cav- 
alier Colonists  into  tranquillity  during  his 
3 


34  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

protectorate.  The  great  Oliver  subdued 
them,  but  he  did  not  extinguish  the  flame 
of  devotion  to  royalty  burning  in  the  Cav- 
alier heart. 

Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  governor  of 
the  Colony  at  this  time,  sent  Colonel 
Richard  Lee,  a  rich  planter,  to  visit 
Charles  II  on  the  Continent,  and  offered 
him  the  Colony  of  Virginia  as  his  king- 
dom, requesting  that  he  come  and  set  up 
his  standard  on  Virginian  soil.  Charles 
did  not  look  with  favor  upon  the  offer, 
but  he  ever  afterwards  held  the  kindness 
of  the  Virginians  in  grateful  remem- 
brance. Tradition  says  that  after  his  res- 
toration, he  recognized  the  fidelity  of  his 
Virginia  subjects  by  wearing  a  coat  of 
Virginia  silk  on  the  day  of  his  corona- 
tion. Afterwards,  when  coins  were 
minted  under  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  they 
bore  the  inscription:  "England,  Scotland, 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          35 

Ireland,  and  Virginia."  One  of  these 
coins  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society  in  Bos- 
ton, and  may  be  seen  by  the  lover  of 
American  antiquities. 

The  term  "Old  Dominion"  is  said  to 
have  originated  in  this  incident  in  the  life 
of  the  exiled  king,  indicating  the  fact  that 
he  might  have  had  a  throne  and  dominion 
in  Virginia  before  he  was  crowned  King 
of  the  British  Empire. 

A  few  words  descriptive  of  the  social 
and  political  life  of  Virginia  previous  to 
the  Revolution  will  close  this  chapter.  A 
glance  at  the  map  of  Eastern  Virginia 
shows  it  to  be  a  highly-favored  land  as 
to  natural  resources.  Blessed  with  an  ex- 
tensive coast-line,  it  is  also  favored  with 
that  fan-like  river  system,  made  up  of  the 
Potomac,  Rappahannock,  York,  and 
James  Rivers.  The  fertile  valleys  and  up- 


36  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

lands  lying  along  these  river  courses  in- 
vited the  planters  to  settle  and  develop 
the  natural  resources  of  the  country. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  way  in 
which  the  seductive  narcotic  found  in  the 
tobacco-leaf  played  such  an  important 
part  in  the  development  of  plantation-life 
in  Old  Virginia.  About  the  time  of  the 
settlement  of  the  Colony,  Sir  Walter  Ra- 
leigh introduced  the  custom  of  tobacco- 
smoking  among  the  fashionable  people  of 
England,  and  as  early  as  1610  tobacco 
was  in  general  use  throughout  England. 
The  rich  land  lying  along  the  shores  of 
these  great  rivers  soon  became  famous  for 
the  quality  and  quantity  of  tobacco  it 
would  produce.  Out  of  this  condition  the 
great  plantation-life  of  Virginia  was  de- 
veloped. During  the  year  1619  England 
imported  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  Vir- 
ginia tobacco.  Tobacco  was  the  medium 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          37 

of  exchange;  the  planter  ordered  his 
goods  from  England,  and  paid  for  them 
in  tobacco.  Taxes  were  paid  in  tobacco, 
and  so  was  even  the  salary  of  the  minister 
of  the  gospel.  A  Colonial  officer  was  ap- 
pointed in  every  plantation  to  collect  the 
parson's  portion  out  of  the  "first  and  best 
tobacco."  It  was  their  way  of  presenting 
the  first-fruits  of  their  increase  unto  the 
Lord. 

This  ready  market  required  a  great 
number  of  laborers  on  the  plantations  to 
supply  the  increasing  demand.  English 
farmers  could  not  be  induced  to  leave 
their  homes  in  England,  and' come  to 
America  as  laborers  on  the  great  planta- 
tions. They  were  much  needed  at  home, 
and  did  not  care  to  exchange  a  sure  thing 
for  the  hardships  and  uncertainties  of 
frontier  life.  The  social  condition  of  the 
poorer  classes  in  English  cities  was  then 


38  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

very  much  as  it  is  now.  Every  large  city 
was  crowded  with  poor  people,  who  could 
not  find  employment.  Many  of  these 
were  sent  to  America  as  servants  and 
laborers,  the  plantation  owners  of  Vir- 
ginia paying  the  expenses  of  the  voyage, 
and  the  emigrant  in  return  binding  him- 
self to  his  employer  for  a  certain  number 
of  years. 

There  was  much  trial  and  difficulty 
connected  with  this  system  of  "indentured 
servants,"  as  it  was  called.  The  experi- 
ment was  not  a  success  from  the  view- 
point of  the  planter.  Many  of  these  serv- 
ants were  habitual  idlers;  others  had  been 
criminals  in  the  Old  World,  and  brought 
over  with  them  nothing  in  the  shape  of 
trustworthy  characters.  In  some  cases 
the  work  of  a  plantation  overseer  was 
much  like  that  of  a  prison  warden. 

In  all  such  moments  of  trial,  the  old- 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          39 

time  enemy,  the  devil,  is  found  to  be  near 
at  hand  with  suggestions  and  flattering 
propositions.  On  this  occasion  he  sailed 
up  the  James  River  on  board  a  Dutch 
man-of-war  with  twenty  captive  Negroes 
from  the  coast  of  Africa.  The  Virginia 
planters  in  the  neighborhood  thought 
they  saw  a  way  out  of  the  difficulties  oc- 
casioned by  the  shipment  of  laborers  from 
the  slums  of  English  cities.  They  pur- 
chased the  Negroes,  and  held  them  as 
slaves  in  a  life  of  perpetual  bondage. 

This  took  place  in  the  month  of  Au- 
gust, 1619,  the  year  before  the  Pilgrims 
landed  at  Plymouth  Rock.  This  same 
year  Virginia  had  been  granted  what  was 
substantially  free  government.  A  "Gen- 
eral Assembly"  was  to  be  called,  the  mem- 
bers thereof  being  elected  by  the  votes  -of 
the  free  men  in  Virginia.  This  legislative 
body  held  its  first  meeting,  July  3Oth,  at 


40  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Jamestown.  It  was  the  first  body  repre- 
senting free  government  that  ever  sat  in 
America.  Thus,  within  one  month  of  each 
other,  free  government  and  African  slav- 
ery were  introduced  upon  the  American 
continent.  A  strange  combination!  Yet 
from  that  hour  it  produced  a  storm  center 
in  America's  political  life,  growing  darker 
and  darker,  until  it  finally  broke  in  the 
terrible  cyclone  of  our  Civil  War. 

We  have  here  the  materials  out  of 
which  were  framed  the  social  life  of  Old 
Virginia  in  her  most  prosperous  days. 
One-half  of  the  population  were  slaves.  A 
step  upward  in  the  social  scale,  we  have  the 
middle  class,  whites  composed  of  "inden- 
tured servants,"  who  had  served  out  their 
contracts  with  the  great  planters,  and  in 
many  cases  had  become  small  landhold- 
ers, locating  upon  the  shores  of  the  tribu- 
taries to  the  great  rivers  above  the  points 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          41 

of  navigation,  floating  their  produce  of 
wheat  and  tobacco  in  flatboats  down  the 
streams  to  the  wharves  of  the  great  plant- 
ers. This  class  included  also  the  hunters, 
pioneers,  traders,  merchants,  and  me- 
chanics, scattered  here  and  there  through- 
out the  country.  Another  step  upward  in 
the  social  scale,  and  we  reach  the  highest 
point  of  Virginia  social  life,  composed  of 
professional  men  and  the  great  plantation 
owners,  modeled  after  the  manner  of  the 
English  landholder.  These  were  the  men 
"who  owned,  ruled,  and  guided  Virginia." 
They  had  plenty  of  leisure,  and  the  sport- 
ing proclivities  for  which  Virginia  gentle- 
men were  renowned  had  their  origin  with 
this  class. 

These  conditions  of  life  were  not  favor- 
able to  the  development  of  towns  and 
cities  representing  centers  of  population, 
a,s  in  New  England.  As  a  result,  the 


42  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

country  became  the  unit  of  political 
power  in  Virginia,  and  the  township,  rep- 
resented by  the  town-meeting,  formed  the 
political  unit  in  New  England. 

These  squire  landholders,  as  they  were 
called,  formed  the  aristocracy  of  Virginia. 
They  were  men  with  a  genius  for  govern- 
ment ;  they  knew  how  to  rule.  They  were 
not  an  aristocracy  of  idlers.  The  cares 
and  labors  peculiar  to  overseeing  their 
great  plantations  kept  them  in  touch  with 
practical  affairs,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to 
find  the  legislative  assemblies  made  up  of 
this -class  of  men.  There  was  little  incli- 
nation among  these  "First  Families  of 
Virginia"  to  become  scholars;  but  there 
was  something  in  their  habits  and  dispo- 
sitions that  made  practical  and  thoughtful 
men  of  them,  qualifying  them  for  that 
leadership  in  public  affairs  for  which  the 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          43 

Old  Dominion  was  so  renowned  in  the 
period  of  our  Revolution. 

New  England  produced  the  agitators 
and  forced  into  existence  popular  insti- 
tutions. Virginia  furnished  the  great 
leaders,  and  formulated  the  methods  by 
which  popular  institutions  were  placed 
upon  enduring  foundations.  This  is  one 
of  the  paradoxes  of  history,  and  yet  the 
cold  facts  of  the  record  force  us  to  the 
statement.  Could  a  more  hopeless  seed- 
plot  be  found  in  which  to  grow  the  mate- 
rial for  democratic  institutions  than  this 
very  Virginia,  into  whose  early  life  we 
have  been  looking?  And  yet  what  hap- 
pened? A  hotbed  of  Puritan-hating 
Cavaliers,  modeled  on  the  plan  of  Eng- 
lish aristocracy,  was  transformed  into  a 
revolutionary  democracy.  Rising  above 
ancestral  tradition,  selfish  pride,  and  prej- 


44  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

udice,  they  proved  themselves  able  to  dis- 
card their  past,  and  rise  with  an  intense 
yet  well-balanced  devotion  to  the  vision 
of  justice  as  presented  in  the  equal  rights 
of  all  men.  These  contradictions,  like  the 
struggling  and  conflicting  influences  of 
breeze  and  rudder,  contended  against 
each  other  only  to  secure  the  sure  prog- 
ress of  the  ship.  It  was  a  Virginian, 
Patrick  Henry,  whose  fiery  eloquence 
kindled  the  flames  of  the  Revolution, 
whose  words,  "Give  me  liberty,  or  give  me 
death,"  were  emblazoned  upon  the  battle- 
flags  of  Colonial  troops,  and  carried  as 
their  slogan  into  the  contest.  It  was 
Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  called  the 
"Apostle  of  Democracy,"  who  penned  our 
sacred  document,  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. James  Madison,  a  Virgin- 
ian, drafted  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  It  was  Virginia  who  gave  us  her 


CAVALIER  AND  PURITAN.          45 

imperial  son,  George  Washington,  at  the 
call  of  John  Adams,  to  lead  the  destinies 
of  the  Continental  armies  from  the  siege 
of  Boston  to  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis 
at  Yorktown. 

"Virginia  gave  us  this  imperial  man, 
Cast  in  the  massive  mold 
Of  those  high-statured  ages  old, 
Which  into  grander   forms  our  mortal  metal 

ran ; 

She  gave  us  this  unblemished  gentleman, — 
What   shall  we  give  her  back  but  love  and 
praise?"  — Lowell. 


III. 
ANCESTRY   AND   BIRTH. 

IT  is  a  coincidence  worthy  of  note,  that 
George  Washington,  the  Father  of  his 
Country,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
Savior  of  his  Country,  were  alike  indiffer- 
ent to  ancestral  connections.  "My  early 
history,"  said  Lincoln,  "is  perfectly  char- 
acterized by  a  single  line  of  Gray's 
Elegy:  The  short  and  simple  annals  of 
the  poor.' '  After  Washington  had  be- 
come famous,  when  the  eyes  of  the  world 
were  upon  him,  and  his  family  history  was 
under  investigation,  he  wrote  to  one  who 
was  interested  in  his  pedigree:  "It  is  of 
very  little  moment;  a  subject  to  which,  I 
confess,  I  have  paid  very  little  attention." 

They  were  both  men  of  such  sterling  char- 
46 


ANCESTRY  AND  BIRTH.  47 

acter,  taking  such  practical  views  of  life, 
that  they  regarded  the  development  of 
personal  virtues  of  more  consequence 
than  an  inherited  pedigree.  Tennyson's 
lines  are  suitable  in  their  application  to 
each  of  these  choice  products  of  Ameri- 
can manhood: 

"  Howe'er  it  be,  it  seems  to  me, 
'T  is  only  noble  to  be  good ; 
Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets, 
And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood." 

In  looking  over  Washington's  letters 
pertaining  to  family  matters,  it  would 
seem  that  he  had  sufficient  care  and  ex- 
pense in  looking  after  the  children  of  his 
brothers  and  sisters  to  excuse  him  from 
any  investigations  along  the  line  of  his 
ancestors.  "God  left  him  childless,  that 
he  might  be  the  father  of  his  country," 
is  a  very  beautiful  poetic  conception;  but 
Washington  turned  his  childless  condi- 


48  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

tion  into  innumerable  fatherly  benefits 
among  the  more  prolific  households  of 
his  brothers  and  his  sister  Betty.  The  ele- 
ments of  thrift,  honesty,  and  greatness, 
were  unsparingly  bestowed  upon  George 
Washington;  but  among  his  own  broth- 
ers, and  in  many  cases  in  their  children, 
there  was  very  little  capacity  for  doing 
anything  but  making  care  and  trouble  for 
their  illustrious  relative. 

His  favorite  brother,  John,  who  was 
his  junior  by  four  years,  must  here  be 
mentioned  as  an  exception.  Washington 
describes  him  as  "the  intimate  companion 
of  my  youth,  and  the  friend  of  my  ripened 
age." 

His  brother  Samuel,  two  years  his  jun- 
ior, was  a  man  of  expensive  habits  and 
prodigal  with  his  money — a  tendency  he 
carried  into  his  matrimonial  affairs,  hav- 
ing been  married  five  times.  Of  him, 


ANCESTRY  AND  BIRTH.  49 

Washington  wrote  to  another  brother: 
"In  God's  name,  how  did  my  brother 
Samuel  get  himself  so  enormously  in 
debt?" 

Yet  George  Washington  had  whereof 
to  boast  in  the  line  of  his  ancestry.  The 
Washington  family  appears  with  honor- 
able mention  on  the  pages  of  English  his- 
tory in  the  early  days  of  the  civil  war, 
where  the  Washingtons  of  Sulgrave  are 
represented  as  strong  supporters  of  the 
king.  One,  Sir  Henry  by  name,  "fought 
gallantly  under  Rupert  at  the  storming  of 
Bristol,  in  1643,"  and  "in  1646  defended 
Worcester  against  Fairfax."  The  Wash- 
ington family  in  England  were  a  race  of 
thrifty  people,  owning  lands,  holding  po- 
sitions as  magistrates,  possessing  the 
qualities  of  good  soldiers,  with  a  dominat- 
ing tendency  to  make  good  marriages. 

The  family  first  made  its  appearance 


50  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

in  Virginia  in  1658,  when  two  brothers, 
John  and  Lawrence  Washington,  bought 
lands  at  Bridges  Creek,  in  Westmoreland 
County.  This  John  Washington  was  the 
first  paternal  ancestor  of  George  Wash- 
ington on  the  American  continent,  and 
in  the  line  of  family  ascent  stands  related 
to  our  Washington  as  great-grandfather. 
Soon  after  his  arrival  in  America,  his  Eng- 
lish wife  and  two  children  died.  Shortly 
after  this  bereavement,  he  married  a  sec- 
ond time,  selecting  as  his  companion  a 
woman  of  good  family  by  the  name  of 
Anne  Pope,  by  whom  he  had  three  chil- 
dren— Lawrence,  John,  and  Anne.  Judg- 
ing from  the  positions  he  held  in  the  Col- 
ony, he  was  a  man  of  character  and  influ- 
ence, having  been  elected  to  the  House  of 
Burgesses  in  1667,  just  ten  years  after  his 
arrival  in  the  Colony.  Eight  years  later 


ANCESTRY  AND  BIRTH.  51 

we  find  him  holding  the  office  of  .colonel 
in  the  Virginia  militia. 

At  his  death,  according  to  the  English 
law,  whereby  the  right  of  inheritance  be- 
longs to  the  eldest  son,  Lawrence  Wash- 
ington became  the  head  of  the  family. 
Lawrence  married  Mildred  Warner,  a 
woman  from  one  of  the  "gentry  families" 
of  Virginia.  This  union  was  blessed  with 
three  children — John,  Augustine,  and 
Mildred  Washington. 

This  second  son,  Augustine,  was  the 
father  of  George  Washington.  Early  in 
life  he  was  sent  to  England,  and  received 
his  education  at  Appleby  school.  During 
his  early  manhood  he  followed  the  sea  for 
a  time,  and  then  settled  down  on  the  Vir- 
ginia plantation  as  an  industrious  and 
prosperous  planter,  raising  "corn,  horned 
beasts,  swine,  and  tobacco."  At  twenty- 


52  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

one  years  of  age  he  was  first  married  to 
Jane  Butler,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons 
and  a  daughter — Butler,  Lawrence,  Au- 
gustine, and  Jane — Butler  and  Jane  dying 
in  childhood.  Fifteen  months  after  the 
death  of  his  first  wife,  Augustine  Wash- 
ington,-the  father,  was  married  a  second 
time  to  Mary  Ball,  a  woman  of  striking 
beauty,  and  one  of  the  belles  of  the  neigh- 
borhood. She  bore  him  four  sons  and 
two  daughters — George,  Elizabeth  (called 
Betty),  Samuel,  John  Augustine,  Charles, 
and  Mildred.  In  the  quaint  language  of 
the  time,  Augustine  Washington  de- 
scribes these  marriages  in  his  will  as  "sev- 
eral ventures." 

George,  the  first-born  of  this  second 
marriage,  came  into  this  world  Saturday, 
February  22,  1732.  At  the  time  of  his 
birth,  his  father  was  thirty-eight  years  old, 
his  mother  was  twenty-eight,  He  was  the 


ANCESTRY  AND  BIRTH.  .         53 

fifth  child  of  ten  children  by  his  father, 
and  the  first  child  of  six  children  borne 
by  his  mother.  The  old  Family  Bible 
bears  this  record  concerning  this  fate- 
marked  babe:  "George  Washington,  son 
of  Augustine  and  Mary,  his  wife,  was  born 
ye  eleventh  day  of  February,  173 £,* 
about  ten  in  the  morning,  and  was  bap- 
tized the  3d  of  April  following." 

The  house  in  which  the  family  lived  at 
this  time  stood  near  the  Potomac  River, 
at  a  place  called  Bridges  Creek,  in  Wash- 
ington Parish,  Westmoreland  County.  It 
had  been  the  home  of  the  Washingtons 

*  "Double  dating  of  the  year,  as  is  done  here,  was  an 
old  custom  observed  between  January  ist  and  the  25th 
of  March.  For  all  other  porti<»ns  of  the  year  a  single 
date  was  used.  Although  January  ist  had  been  gener- 
ally accepted  as  the  beginning  of  the  historical  year  in 
Christian  countries,  yet  March  25th  was  held  by  some 
as  the  beginning  of  the  civil  or  legal  year.  The  Gre- 
gorian Chronology,  or  new  style,  had  not,  at  the  time  of 
Washington's  birth,  been  adopted  by  England,  and, 
indeed,  was  not  until  September  2,  1752." 

By  the  adoption  of  Pope  Gregory's  Calendar,  eleven 
days  were  added  to  the  reckoning,  thus  bringing 
Washington's  birthday  on  the  date  of  February  22d, 
the  day  now  observed. 


54         .  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

since  the  landing  of  the  first  ancestor  in 
1657.  The  old  house  has  been  frequently 
described.  Its  counterpart  may  be  seen 
to-day  in  certain  parts  of  Old  Virginia 
and  in  rural  New  England.  It  was  a 
plain,  wooden  farm-house,  with  four 
rooms  on  the  ground  floor;  above  these 
was  an  attic  story,  a  long  roof  sloping 
nearly  to  the  ground  on  the  rear  side; 
with  great  brick  chimneys  at  each  end, 
affording  abundant  space  for  Mie  targe, 
open  fireplaces  within.  Three  years  after 
Washington  was  born,  the  house  was 
burned  to  the  ground.  Not  a  trace  of  the 
old  house  is  in  existence  to-day,  and  the 
only  way  of  identifying  the  spot  where 
the  great  leader  of  Democratic  America 
was  born,  is  by  a  stone  slab,  weather- 
beaten  and  overgrown  with  briers,  rest- 
ing upon  a  foundation  of  bricks  taken 


ANCESTRY  AND  BIRTH.  55 

from  the  ruins  of  the  old  chimneys.    The 
little  monument  bears  this  inscription: 

HERE, 

The  nth  of  Febuary,  1732,  (old  style,) 
GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

WAS   BORN. 

"  Honored  and  loved — the  patriot  and  the  sage — 
Born  for  thine  own  and  every  coming  age; 
Thy  country's  champion,  Freedom's  chosen  son, 
We  hail  thy  birthday — glorious  Washington." 

—S.  F.  Smith,  D.  D., 
(Author  of  "My  Country,  'tis  of  Thee.") 


CHAPTER  IV. 
BOYHOOD  AND  HOME   LIFE. 

THE  burning  of  the  house  on  Bridges 
Creek  left  the  family  without  a 
home.  Augustine  Washington  hav- 
ing business  interests  in  some  iron-works 
in  another  part  of  the  Colony,  and  wishing 
to  bring  up  his  children  with  other  sur- 
roundings than  those  furnished  by  the 
lonely  neighborhood  of  Bridges  Creek,  de- 
cided to  rebuild  his  home  in  another  local- 
ity. He  was  the  owner  of  an  estate  in  Staf- 
ford County,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Rappahannock  River,  and  to  this  estate  he 
removed  his  family,  locating  at  a  point  on 
the  river  opposite  the  village  of  Fred- 
ericksburg.  The  second  house  in  which 

the  family  lived  is  not  now  in  existence, 
56 


BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LIFE.        57 

but  an  accurate  picture  was  made  of  it 
before  it  was  destroyed.  It  was  very 
much  after  the  style  of  the  old  house  at 
Bridges  Creek.  It  stood  on  the  slope  of 
a  gradually  rising  hill,  with  a  stretcli  of 
meadow-land  between  it  and  the  Rappa- 
hannock,  in  full  view  of  Fredericksburg, 
just  across  the  river.  This  home  was 
called  "Pine  Grove"  by  the  Washington 
family,  but  in  the  neighborhood  it  was 
known  as  "Ferry  Farm." 

In  this  picturesque  spot  George  Wash- 
ington spent  his  childhood,  surrounded 
by  such  wholesome  and  vigorous  life  as 
the  well-kept  plantation  and  grandly-flow- 
ing river  presented.  It  must  have  been 
a  very  happy  childhood.  Here  were  de- 
veloped that  intense  love  for  athletic 
sports  and  the  delight  in  outdoor  life  for 
which  Washington  showed  such  passion- 
ate fondness  through  all  the  years  of  his 


58  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

mature  manhood.  Here  the  great  mother. 
Nature,  took  the  boy  into  her  arms,  and 
nursed  him  into  loving  fellowship  with 
her  mighty  forests,  fruitful  fields,  and  ma- 
jestic rivers. 

Mr.  B.  J.  Lossing,  in  "The  Home  of 
Washington,"  gives  us  a  glance  into  the 
childhood  period  of  Washington's  life  at 
this  time.  Among  his  early  boy  com- 
panions was  Richard  Henry  Lee,  a  mem- 
ber of  one  of  the  famous  families  of  Vir- 
ginia. In  after  years  they  had  much  to 
do  with  each  other,  when  serious  matters 
of  the  Revolution  pressed  upon  them. 
Here  is  a  sample  of  their  first  letter-writ- 
ing at  nine  years  of  age : 

"  Richard  Henry  Lee  to  George  Washington : 

"Pa  brought  me  two  pretty  books  full  of  pic- 
tures he  got  them  in  Alexandria  they  have  pictures 
of  dogs  and  cats  and  tigers  and  elefants  and  ever 
so  many  pretty  things  cousin  bids  me  send  you 
one  of  them  it  has  a  picture  of  an  elefant  and  a 


BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LIFE.       59 

little  Indian  boy  on  his  back  like  uncle  jo's  sam 
pa  says  if  I  learn  my  tasks  good  he  will  let  uncle 
jo  bring  me  to  see  you  will  you  ask  your  ma  to  let 
you  come  to  see  me.  RICHARD  HENRY  LEE." 

"George  Washington  to  Richard  Henry  Lee: 

"  DEAR  DICKEY  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the 
pretty  picture-book  you  gave  me.  Sam  asked  me 
to  show  him  the  pictures  and  I  showed  him  all  the 
pictures  in  it ;  and  I  read  to  him  how  the  tame 
elephant  took  care  of  the  master's  little  boy,  and 
put  him  on  his  back  and  would  not  let  any  body 
touch  his  master's  little  son.  I  can  read  three  or 
four  pages  sometimes  without  missing  a  word. 
Ma  says  I  may  go  to  see  you,  and  stay  all  day  with 
you  next  week  if  it  be  not  rainy.  She  says  I  may 
ride  my  pony  Hero  if  Uncle  Ben  will  go  with  me 
and  lead  Hero.  I  have  a  little  piece  of  poetry 
about  the  picture  book  you  gave  me,  but  I  mustn't 
tell  you  who  wrote  the  poetry. 

"  '  G.  W.'s  compliments  to  R.  H.  L. 
And  likes  his  book  full  well, 
Henceforth  will  count  him  his  friend, 
And  hopes  many  happy  days  he  may  spend.' 
"Your  good  friend, 

*   "  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"I  am  going  to  get  a  whip  top  soon,  and  you 
may  see  and  whip  it." 

Washington  has  the  general  reputa- 
tion of  being  a  "nonconformist  in  the  use 


60  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

of  the  king's  English."  He  certainly  does 
well  in  this  letter  for  a  boy  of  nine  years. 
If  he  wrote  the  poetry  with  which  he 
closes  the  letter,  posterity  has  occasion  to 
rejoice  that  the  Muse  deserted  him  very 
early  in  life. 

A  dark  shadow  now  falls  across  the 
threshold  of  this  prosperous  and  happy 
home.  The  family  had  lived  nine  years 
in  the  new  home  on  the  Rappahannock 
when  Augustine  Washington  was  taken 
sick  as  the  result  of  exposure  in  a  severe 
rainstorm,  and  on  the  I2th  day  of  April, 
1743,  he  died,  being  forty-nine  years  of 
age.  His  body  was  taken  to  Bridges 
Creek,  and  placed  in  the  family  tomb. 

George  Washington,  was  eleven  years 
old  at  the  time  of  his  father's  death.  The 
boy  had  early  shown  signs  of  future  prom- 
ise, and  the  father  dearly  loved  the  lad, 
taking  him  into  a  close  companionship 


BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LIFE,        61 

with  himself;  doing  that  which  sturdy, 
energetic  business  men  so  seldom  find 
congenial — making  a  chum  out  of  his 
boy. 

After  the  death  of  Augustine  Wash- 
ington the  family  numbered  eight  souls — 
Lawrence  and  Augustine,  Jr.,  the  two 
sons  of  the  former  marriage;  the  widowed 
mother;  George,  the  first-born  of  the 
second  marriage,  and  four  younger  chil- 
dren. The  estate  of  the  father  at  the  time 
of  his  death  consisted  of  five  thousand 
acres  of  land  lying  in  four  counties,  sev- 
eral town  lots  in  Fredericksburg,  and  one- 
twelfth  of  the  shares  in  the  Principio  Iron 
Company.  To  Lawrence,  the  eldest  son, 
fell  the  lion's  share — two  thousand  five 
hundred  acres  of  land  near  Hunting 
Creek,  now  Mount  Vernon;  also  other 
lands  and  the  iron-works  shares.  To  Au- 
gustine, the  rich  lands  in  Westmoreland 


62  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

County,  the  first  home  of  the  Washington 
family  in  America.  To  George  he  willed 
the  plantation  and  mansion  on  the  Rappa- 
hannock,  where  the  family  were  living  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  To  the  wife  and 
younger  children  were  given  the  residue 
of  the  estate.  Augustine  Washington's 
confidence  in  the  ability  and  prudence  of 
his  wife  is  indicated  by  a  clause  in  his 
will,  where  he  directs  that  all  the  proceeds 
of  the  property  given  to  the  minor  chil- 
dren should  be  administered  by  her  until 
they  became  of  age.  George  Washing- 
ton's tender  regard  for  the  comfort  of  his 
mother  finds  generous  expression  in  that 
he  never  claimed  from  her  the  part  of  the 
estate  left  to  him  by  his  father. 

In  many  of  the  efforts  to  describe  the 
character  of  "Mary,  the  mother  of  Wash- 
ington," much  use  has  been  made  of  senti- 
mental imagination  plus  the  process  of 


BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LIFE.       63 

going  beyond  the  truth.  She  has  been 
represented  as  a  prodigy  of  motherhood, 
as  a  personality  fabulous  in  womanly  re- 
sources. Other  delineators  of  her  char- 
acter swing  to  the  opposite  extreme,  pro- 
ceeding upon  the  principle  of  human 
frailty,  that  milk  spilled  from  one  side  of 
the  pan  must  also  be  spilled  from  the  other 
side  in  the  act  of  readjustment.  Accord- 
ing to  this  estimate  of  Mother  Washing- 
ton, she  possessed  some  of  the  character- 
istics of  a  common  scold.  Her  intense 
solicitude  for  her  son  George  has  been 
described  as  "fond  and  unthinking."  She 
lived  to  be  eighty-three  years  of  age,  her 
death  preceding  that  of  her  son  by  ten 
years.  In  the  last  years  of  her  life  she 
was  a  great  sufferer  from  a  cancer.  Under 
the  pressure  of  this  disease  and  the  weight 
of  years,  a  querulous  discontent,  so  fre- 
quently the  heritage  of  old  age  grew 


64  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

upon  her.  This  tendency  to  petulance, 
growing  out  of  these  abnormal  con- 
ditions, has  been  worked  in  some  quarters 
into  the  belief  that  it  was  a  constituent 
element  of  her  character  when  left  as  a 
healthy,  sagacious,  young  widow  in 
charge  of  a  large  plantation  with  five 
young  children  under  her  care. 

In  each  of  these  representations  a 
wrong  is  done  to  the  memory  of  Mary 
Washington.  Her  real  character  is  suffi- 
ciently strong  and  noble  to  stand  alone 
without  the  aid  of  fulsome  eulogy,  and 
posterity  will  tolerate  no  attempt  to  mini- 
mize her  influence  upon  the  character  of 
her  son  by  dragging  into  the  light  certain 
frailties  so  common  to  humanity  "when 
age  steals  on." 

Sir  Matthew  Hale's  "Contemplations 
Moral  and  Divine"  was  Mary  Washing- 
ton's hand-book  of  duty.  This  precious 


BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LIFE.        65 

volume,  bearing  his  mother's  name,  writ- 
ten by  her  own  hand,  Washington  pre- 
served with  filial  care  till  the  day  of  his 
death.  It  may  still  be  seen  in  the  archives 
of  Mount  Vernon.  If  she  had  performed 
for  him  no  other  service  than  that  of 
teaching  him  to  venerate  the  contents  of 
this  book,  she  would  have  done  enough 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  his  noble  char- 
acter. Here  is  the  closing  paragraph  of 
a  selection  from  these  Contemplations, 
used  by  Mary  Washington  as  a  memory 
lesson  for  her  children:  "When  Thy  honor 
or  the  good  of  my  country  was  concerned, 
I  then  thought  it  was  a  seasonable  time 
to  lay  out  my  reputation  for  the  advan- 
tage of  either,  and  to  act  with  it,  and  by 
it,  and  upon  it,  to  the  highest,  in  the  use 
of  all  lawful  means,  and  upon  such  an  oc- 
casion, the  counsel  of  Mordecai  to  Esther 
was  my  encouragement:  'Who  knoweth 


66  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

whether  God  hath  not  given  thcc  this  repu- 
tation and  esteem  for  such  a  time  as  this.'  ' 
One  feels  as  if  he  were  in  the  council 
chambers  of  the  Almighty  as  he  reads 
these  words,  and  then  thinks  of  Wash- 
ington during  the  struggle  for  liberty. 

Few  facts  are  known  concerning  the 
life  of  Mary  Washington  after  the  death 
of  her  husband.  Combining  these  with 
the  sidelights  that  fall  across  the  pathway 
of  her  widowhood,  we  discover  a  woman- 
hood intensely  human.  Her  character  is 
revealed  as  being  neither  above  nor  be- 
neath that  of  hundreds  of  other  Ameri- 
can mothers,  who  have  been  called  to  pass 
through  similar  experiences. 

Returning  to  her  home  from  the  fu- 
neral of  her  husband,  she  is  confronted  by 
the  serious  problems  of  administering  her 
husband's  estate,  caring  for  and  training 
five  fatherless  children.  She  was  a  sensi- 


BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LTFE.        67 

ble,  high-minded  woman,  with  much  oi 
the  old  Roman  matron  in  her  make-up, 
and  having  small  store  of  polite  accom- 
plishments. To  a  woman  of  conscience, 
life  is  a  terribly  serious  affair  from  such 
a  point  of  view. 

To  the  tasks  of  administering  her  busi- 
ness matters  and  training  her  children  for 
their  future  destiny,  this  mother,  now 
thirty-seven  years  of  age,  addresses  her- 
self. She  took  up  with  earnest  heart  and 
helping  hands  the  responsibilities  before 
her,  setting'  herself  with  steadfast  pur- 
pose to  hear  and  obey  the  calls  of  duty. 

To  a  woman  of  Madam  Washington's 
temperament  there  belonged  a  settled 
conviction  that  a  home  must  do  some- 
thing more  for  a  boy  than  to  give  him 
shelter  by  night  and  food  by  day,  with  the 
opportunity  of  groiuing  up  to  man's  es- 


68  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

tate.      She   was    a    contender   for   home 
training. 

She  very  early  recognized  in  her  shy, 
grave,  full-blooded  first-born  a  dynamo 
of  tremedous  energy.  She  had  given  him 
much  of  her  own  strong  nature,  and  there- 
fore knew  his  possibilities  under  the  sway 
of  strong  passion.  Virginia  at  this  time 
had  her  share  of  young  rakes,  recruited 
from  the  first  families,  and  even  her  boy 
might  be  tempted  beyond  the  point  of 
endurance.  Madam  Washington  set  her- 
self the  task  of  avoiding  such'disaster  by 
administering  the  affairs  of  her  home  ac- 
cording to  strict  discipline.  She  "trained 
the  children  in  manners  and  morals,  in 
ideas  and  in  faith,  day  and  night,  morn- 
ing and  evening."  Her  word  was  law. 
Generally  it  was  tenderly  administered; 
but  if  necessity  required  it,  sterner  meth- 


BOYHOOD  AND  HOME  LIFE.        69 

ods  were  adopted,  from  which  there  was 
no  appeal. 

Lawrence  Washington,  of  Chotank — a 
cousin  of  George  Washington — writes 
these  words  concerning  Mary  Washing- 
ton and  her  family  life:  "I  was  often  here 
[at  Pine  Grove]  with  George,  his  play- 
mate, schoolmate,  and  young  man's  com- 
panion. Of  the  mother,  I  was  more  afraid 
than  of  my  own  parents.  She  awed  me 
in  the  midst  of  her  kindness;  and  even 
now,  when  time  has  whitened  my  locks 
and  I  am  the  grandfather  of  a  second 
generation,  I  could  not  behold  that  ma- 
jestic woman  without  feelings  it  is  impos- 
sible to  describe." 

No  doubt  this  would  be  called  heroic 
treatment  in  the  light  of  modern  senti- 
ment; but  it  put  iron  into  the  blood,  and 
taught  with  no  uncertain  sound  the  two 
great  principles  of  modern  civilization, 


yo  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

self-restraint  and  obedience  to  law.  In 
after  years,  when  the  fame  of  George 
Washington  was  world-wide,  he  often  re- 
peated these  words  of  tribute  to  his  moth- 
er's care:  "All  that  I  am,  I  owe  to  my 
mother." 


V. 

SCHOOL-DAYS. 

WHILE  the  public-school  system  re- 
ceived little  sympathy  and  less 
support  in  the  early  days  of  Vir- 
ginia life,  we  are  not  to  infer  that  there 
were  no  educated  men  in  Virginia.  The 
"first  families,"  very  early  in  the  history  of 
the  Colony,  sent  their  sons  to  English  uni- 
versities. At  the  period  of  Washington's 
boyhood,  Virginia  was  well  supplied  with 
men  who  had  received  their  degrees  from 
Oxford  and  Edinburgh.  There  was  a 
students'  club  in  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, whose  membership  conditions  re- 
quired one  "to  have  been  born  in  Vir- 
ginia." 

George  Washington's  father  had  re- 


72  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ceived  his  education  at  Appleby  School 
in  England,  and,  true  to  his  English  in- 
stincts, he  sent  Lawrence  and  Augustine, 
the  two  sons  by  his  first  marriage,  to  the 
Mother  Country  to  complete  their  edu- 
cation. Shortly  before  the  father's  death 
Lawrence  returned  from  England,  an  edu- 
cated and  finished  gentleman,  according 
to  the  standards  of  that  day.  He  was  a 
man  of  noble,  generous  character,  the  sen- 
ior of  his  half-brother  George  by  fourteen 
years,  and  from  the  hour  of  his  father's 
death  he  took  his  little  step-brother  upon 
his  heart,  loving  him  with  a  double  affec- 
tion, and  aiding  him  in  every  possible 
way.  "Big  brother  Lawrence  was  the 
hero  of  George's  youth." 

Had  Augustine  Washington  lived, 
doubtless  George  would  have  shared  with 
his  older  half-brothers  the  advantages  of 
a  thorough  scholastic  training.  What  ef- 


SCHOOL-DAYS.  73 

feet  an  English  university  education  might 
have  wrought  on  the  future  life  and  serv- 
fce  of  George  Washington,  no  one  has  the 
right  to  say.  But  this  may  be  said,  backed 
by  the  sober  facts  of  experience,  three 
times  in  the  early  life  of  Washington  did 
the  genius  of  American  destiny  shut  her 
iron  door  against  him,  forbidding  him  to 
come  into  any  closer  relations  with  Eng- 
lish official  life  than  those  of  a  colonel  of 
Virginia  Militia. 

When  the  family  removed  from  their 
home  at  Bridges  Creek  to  "Pine  Grove" 
on  the  Rappahannock,  George  was  sent 
to  the  old -"Field  School,"  taught  by  a 
Mr.  Hobly,  pedagogue,  and  sexton  of  the 
parish.  Tradition  says  this  schoolmaster 
carried  about  with  him  more  English  con- 
ceit than  any  man  in  three  parishes.  Here 
our  hero,  a  strong,  healthy  country  boy, 
learned  the  alphabet  and  the  first  prin- 


74"  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ciples  of  writing.  Soon  after  his  father's 
death,  when  just  entering  his  twelfth  year, 
he  was  sent  back  to  Bridges  Creek,  the 
home  of  his  half-brother,  Augustine, 
where  there  was  a  higher  grade  school 
kept  by  a  Mr.  Williams.  Here  he  re- 
mained several  years,  receiving  what 
would  be  called  to-day  a  grammar-school 
education.  After  this  sojourn  with  the 
folks  at  Bridges  Creek,  he  returned  home 
and  attended  a  school  in  Fredericksburg, 
kept  by  the  Rev.  James  Marye.  There 
was  no  bridge  over  the  river,  and  young 
Washington  rowed  his  boat  to  and  from 
school  morning  and  evening  in  the  rough- 
est weather. 

The  copy  and  exercise  books  of  Wash- 
ington's school-days  are  fortunately  pre- 
served. In  looking  them  over,  one  sees 
something  of  the  talent  and  merit  of  the 
boy.  They  bear  the  marks  of  industry 


SCHOOL-DA  rs.  7  5 

and  care.  His  handwriting  indicates  a 
well-poised  character,  being  "round,  fair, 
and  bold,"  the  lines  running  straight  and 
even.  In  these  books  much  space  is  given 
to  legal  forms,  receipts,  bills,  leases,  deeds, 
wills,  and  such  other  matters  required  by 
a  business  man  in  a  community  where 
lawyers  were  few.  Then  we  come  to 
pages  of  mathematical  problems,  with 
well-drawn  geometrical  figures.  Here  is 
a  page  where  the  lad  has  broken  away 
from  his  task,  and  the  real  boy  nature 
shows  itself  in  crude  drawings  of  birds, 
human  faces,  and  other  indications  of 
school-boy  pranks.  Where  is  the  boy  who 
but  feels  this  "touch  of  nature,"  making 
him  akin  with  this  Virginia  youngster  at 
Ferry  Farm? 

Some  one  has  said  that  the  art  of  spell- 
ing, like  the  use  of  the  fork  at  table,  must 
be  learned  before  one  is  fifteen,  or  it  will 


76  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

never  be  learned.  Washington's  class 
grade  in  the  spelling-book  was  near  the 
lower  end  of  the  list,  but  he  led  all  in  the 
department  of  mathematics,  having  a  spe- 
cial talent  and  liking  for  this  branch  of 
learning.  His  ability,  coupled  with  the 
influence  of  Lord  Fairfax,  secured  for 
him,  a  few  years  later,  the  position  of 
public  land  surveyor. 

There  was  quite  a  stir  in  the  home-nest 
of  Madam  Washington  one  day,  just  after 
George  had  turned  his  fourteenth  year. 
It  happened  on  this  wise:  The  boy  had 
been  thinking  about  his  future.  He 
wanted  a  chance  to  try  his  wings,  and 
finally  decided  that  he  would  go  to  sea. 
His  mother  was  startled  when  he  made 
known  to  her  his  desire,  and  withheld  her 
consent  for  some  time.  The  request  was, 
however,  renewed,  backed  by  the  hearty 
indorsement  of  Lawrence  Washington,  in 


SCHOOL-DAYS.  77 

whom  George's  mother  had  the  utmost 
confidence. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  boy  became 
possessed  with  this  idea.  He  was  a  fre- 
quent visitor  at  Mount  Vernon,  now  the 
home  of  Lawrence  Washington  and  his 
charming  wife.  Lawrence  himself  had 
served  as  a  captain  in  a  Virginia  regiment 
under  Admiral  Vernon  in  the  attack  of 
naval  and  land  forces  upon  Cartagena, 
South  America,  in  1741.  Doubtless 
stories  of  this  fight  had  been  told  many 
times  around  the  fireside  at  Mount  Ver- 
non. George  had  often  watched  the  load- 
ing of  merchant  ships  at  the  river 
wharves,  and  had  looked  longingly  after 
them  as  they  swung  into  the  current  of 
the  river,  and  set  their  sails  for  the  far- 
distant  ports  of  the  Old  World.  There 
was  some  of  the  blood  of  the  old  sea-kings 
in  him,  and  it  was  stirred  by  these  sights 


78  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

and  sounds.  More  than  this,  there  was  a 
military  streak  running  all  through  the 
Washington  family,  and  George  had  in- 
herited a  double  portion. 

What  was  more  natural  to  this  strong, 
manly  boy,  with  a  life-record  to  make, 
than  the  determination  to  enter  the  Brit- 
ish navy?  His  mother  reluctantly  gave 
her  consent,  and  in  1746  Lawrence  Wash- 
ington obtained  for  George  a  midship- 
man's warrant  in  the  British  navy. 

George  was  delighted  with  the  out- 
look. Preparations  for  his  leaving  home 
were  hurried  along.  His  midshipman's 
uniform  had  been  sent  to  him,  and  it  is 
said  the  young  sailor's  luggage  was  on 
board  a  British  man-of-war  anchored  in 
the  Potomac.  Look  at  the  young  hero 
as  he  stands  dressed  in  his  first  uniform! 
The  natty  cap  is  very  becoming,  the 
enameled  dagger-belt  adds  to  his  soldier 


SCHOOL-DA  YS.  79 

bearing.    With  well-polished  shoes,  he  is 
every  inch  a  sailor. 

Now  comes  in  the  demon  of  the  play. 
Madam  Washington  had  a  lawyer  brother 
by  the  name  of  Joseph  Ball,  living  in 
London,  who,  hearing  of  the  intention  to 
send  George  to  sea,  wrote  a  strong  letter 
to  his  sister  opposing  the  scheme.  The 
story  goes  on  to  say  that  this  letter  was 
received  by  Madam  Washington  the  day 
before  George  was  to  sail.  She  had  never 
lost  her  aversion  to  the  plan,  and  now  her 
brother's  letter  fixed  her  determination. 
At  the  last  moment  she  entered  her  pro- 
test, carried  her  point,  and  saved  her  first- 
born from  His  Majesty's  service,  turning 
his  life  purpose  in  another  direction.  The 
familiar  name  George  Washington  means 
more  to  the  world  to-day  than  if  it  were 
listed  among  the  names  of  Britain's 
greatest  admirals!  It  was  a  sore  trial 


8o  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

to  the  boy;  but  he  took  it  without  sulk- 
ing, and  went  back  to  school  for  another 
year,  applying  himself  diligently  to  his 
studies,  giving  special  attention  to  land 
surveying. 

When  he  was  fifteen  years  old,  George 
Washington  passed  through  his  first  love 
experience.  As  boy  and  man,  he  was  very 
susceptible  to  the  charms  of  the  fair  sex. 
Good-looking  women  were  attractive  to 
him.  There  is  something  wrong  in  a  man 
when  he  is  made  up  otherwise.  But 
Washington's  juvenile  love  emotions 
were  set  on  the  hair-trigger,  and  went  off 
very  easily  under  the  influence  of  a  grace- 
ful form  and  pretty  face.  As  a  school  lad, 
he  was  one  day  found  "romping  with  one 
of  the  largest  girls."  The  tell-tale  pages 
of  his  journal  inform  us  that,  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  met  a  girl,  while  visiting  his 
half-brother  Augustine,  in  Westmore- 


SCHOOL-DA  YS.  8 1 

land,  with  whom  he  fell  deeply  in  love. 
In  the  crude  efforts  of  a  young  lover  to 
write  poetry,  he  calls  her  his  "Low  Land 
Beauty."  For  some  reason  this  lo've  affair 
did  not  prosper.  Either  George  was 
jilted,  or  his  shyness  prevented  him  from 
declaring  his  passion.  He  has  told  the 
world  of  his  flame  in  the  pages  of  his  jour- 
nal. Here  are  a  few  lines  of  this  boy 
lover's  lament: 

"  O  ye  gods,  why  should  my  poor,  resistless  heart 

Stand  to  oppose  thy  might  and  power 
At  last  surrender  to  Cupid's  feather'd  dart 

And  now  lays  bleeding  every  hour 
For  her  that 's  pitiless  of  my  grief  and  woes, 
And  will  not  on  me  pity  take." 

Who  or  what  this  "Low  Land  Beauty" 
was,  no  one  is  able  to  say. 

Our  young  spark  did  not  mope  around 
in  gloomy  solitude.  He  became  more 
diligent  in  study,  and  began  some  prac- 
tical work  in  land  surveying.  Very  soon 


82  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

after  the  above  lament  we  find  him  deeply 
interested  in  another  "very  agreeable 
young  lady,"  whose  charms,  in  a  meas- 
ure, offset  those  of  the  "Low  Land 
Beauty." 

Although  this  boy  lover  describes 
some  of  these  heart  experiences  in  a  motto 
poem— 

"  'T  was  perfect  love  before, 
But  now  I  do  adore," 

it  is  stretching  language  to  call  them  seri- 
ous affairs;  they  were  such  as  any  suscep- 
tible young  fellow  may  pass  through  two 
or  three  times  before  the  age  of  twenty 
years. 

There  is  a  very  important  feature  of 
Washington's  school  life  left  for  the  clos- 
ing of  this  chapter.  In  one  of  his  manu- 
script books  we  find  this  heading:  "Rules 
of  Civility  and  Decent  Behavior  in  Com- 
pany and  Conversation."  Then  follows 


SCHOOL-DAYS.  83 

a  list  of  one  hundred  and  ten  rules  in 
Washington's  handwriting.  His  biog- 
raphers have  puzzled  much  over  their  ori- 
gin, some  insisting  that  he  wrote  them 
himself,  others  that  he  compiled  them. 
Still  others  are  of  the  opinion  that  he 
composed  some  of  them,  some  of  them 
he  copied,  and  some  he  wrote  down  from 
the  lips  of  his  teachers  and  learned  friends. 
Mr.  Lodge,  in  his  "Life  of  Washington," 
throws  the  latest  light  upon  the  subject, 
in  the  following  words:  "It  has  always 
been  supposed  that  these  rules  were 
copied,  but  it  was  reserved  apparently  for 
the  storms  of  a  mighty  Civil  War  to  lay 
bare  what  may  have  been,  if  not  the 
source  of  these  rules  themselves,  the  ori- 
gin and  suggestion  of  their  compilation. 
At  that  time  a  little  volume  was  found  in 
Virginia,  bearing  the  name  of  George 
Washington  in  a  boyish  hand  on  the  fly- 


84  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

leaf,  and  the  date  1742.  The  book  was 
entitled,  'The  Young  Man's  Compan- 
ion.' It  was  an  English  work,  and  had 
passed  through  thirteen  editions.  .  .  . 
It  was  written  by  W.  Mather,  in  a  plain 
and  easy  style,  and  treated  of  arithmetic, 
surveying,  forms  for  legal  documents,  the 
measuring  of  land  and  lumber,  gardening, 
and  many  other  useful  topics,  and  it  con- 
tained general  precepts,  which,  with  the 
aid  of  Hale's  'Contemplations,'  may 
readily  have  furnished  the  hints  for  the 
rules  found  in  manuscript  among  Wash- 
ington's papers/' 

Whatever  may  have  been  their  origin, 
we  need  only  call  attention  to  the  rare 
moral  insight  of  a  fifteen-year-old  boy, 
who  would  select  such  a  code  as  the  basis 
of  his  character  and  the  guide  of  his  life. 
Here  are  a  few  of  them: 

"Every  action  in  company  ought  to  be 


SCHOOL-DA  YS.  85 

with  some  sign  of  respect  to  those 
present." 

"When  you  meet  with  one  of  greater 
quality  than  yourself,  stop  and  retire,  es- 
pecially if  it  be  at  a  door  or  any  strait 
place,  to  give  way  for  him  to  pass." 

"Strive  not  with  your  superiors  in  ar- 
gument, but  always  submit  your  judg- 
ment to  others  with  modesty." 

"Be  not  hasty  to  believe  flying  reports 
to  the  disparagement  of  any." 

"Take  all  admonitions  thankfully,  in 
what  time  or  place  soever  given ;  but  after- 
wards, not  being  culpable,  take  a  time  or 
place  convenient  to  let  him  know  it  that 
gave  them." 

"Think  before  you  speak;  pronounce 
not  imperfectly,  nor  bring  out  your  words 
too  hastily,  but  orderly  and  distinctly." 

"Speak  not  evil  of  the  absent,  for  it  is 
unjust." 


86  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"Make  no  show  of  taking  great  delight 
in  your  victuals;  feed  not  with  greediness; 
cut  your  bread  with  a  knife;  lerm  not  on 
the  table;  neither  find  fault  with  what  you 
eat." 

"Be  not  angry  at  table,  whatever  hap- 
pens, and  if  you  have  reason  to  be  so, 
show  it  not;  put  on  a  cheerful  counte- 
nance, especially  if  there  be  strangers,  for 
good  humor  makes  one  dish  of  meat  a 
feast." 

"Let  your  recreations  be  manful,  not 
sinful." 

"Show  not  yourself  glad  at  the  mis- 
fortune of  another,  though  he  were  your 
enemy." 

"Wherein  you  reprove  another,  be  un- 
blamable yourself,  for  example  is  more 
prevalent  than  precept." 

"Associate  yourself  with  men  of  good 
quality,  if  you  esteem  your  own  reputa- 


SCHOOL-DAYS,  87 

tion,  for  it  is  better  to  be  alone  than  in 
bad  company." 

"Be  not  curious  to  know  the  affairs  of 
others;  neither  approach  to  those  that 
speak  in  private." 

"Undertake  not  what  you  can  not  per- 
form, but  be  careful  to  keep  your  prom- 
ises." 

"When  you  speak  of  God,  or  his  attri- 
butes, let  it  be  seriously  in  reverence." 

"Honor  and  obey  your  natural  parents, 
although  they  be  poor." 

"Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast  that 
little  spark  of  celestial  fire,  called  conscience." 


VI. 
LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST. 

IN  the  year  1747  George  Washington 
finished  his  formal  school-training,  and 

in  the  atumun  of  the  same  year  he  went 
to  live  with  his  brother  Lawrence,  at  his 
country  seat  on  the  Potomac.  Lawrence 
had  named  his  home  Mount  Vernon,  in 
honor  of  Admiral  Vernon,  under  whom 
he  had  served  as  captain  in  the  siege  of 
Cartagena. 

Happy  is  the  youth  who  is  favored  with 
the  privilege  of  companionship  with  a 
small  group  of  well-poised,  refined,  and 
intelligent  people!  The  circumstances  of 
Washington's  boyhood  were  especially 
favorable  in  this  respect.  No  study  of  the 
formative  period  of  his  life  is  complete 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.        89 

which  passes  Over  in  silence  the  school- 
ing he  received  from  the  companionships 
of  men  and  women  who  were  much  older 
than  himself. 

Lawrence  Washington  was  an  Oxford 
graduate,  and  a  finished  gentleman.  He 
had  married  Anne  Fairfax,  daughter  of 
William  Fairfax,  who  was  the  owner  of 
a  plantation  named  Belvoir,  a  few  miles 
below  Mount  Vernon.  William  Fairfax 
had  been  an  officer  in  the  English  army, 
and  at  one  time  governor  of  one  of  the 
Bahama  Islands.  His  home  was  the  cen- 

* 

ter  of  a  social  life  renowned  through  the 
neighborhood.  The  master  of  Belvoir 
was  a  wealthy  gentleman,  of  refined  tastes 
and  educated  mind.  Between  these  two 
homes  there  existed  the  closest  social  re- 
lations, and  George  Washington,  viciting 
Mount  Vernon,  found  himself  also  among 
the  guests  at  Belvoir. 


90  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

This  acquaintance  with  the  Fairfax 
family  was  a  fortunate  episode  in  the  life 
of  young  Washington.  One  year  pre- 
vious to  the  autumn  when  George  went  to 
live  with  his  brother  Lawrence,  Thomas 
Lord  Fairfax,  a  cousin  to  William  Fair- 
fax, came  to  Virginia,  and  was  staying  for 
the  time  being  at  Belvoir.  .He  was  a  peer 
of  the  realm,  an  Oxford  graduate,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  famous  Spectator  Club,  and  the 
owner  of  vast  estates  on  the  Northern 
Neck  of  Virginia.  This  distinguished 
Englishman  was  well  on  to  sixty  years  of 
age  when  he  first  met  the  Virginia  coun- 
try boy,  George  Washington.  They  were 
mutually  attracted  to  each  other. 

We  can  easily  see  how  a  boy  of  Wash- 
ington's parts  would  become  interested 
in  such  a  man.  Lord  Fairfax  was  a  past 
master  of  all  the  graces  of  fashionable 
high-bred  English  society,  an  instructive 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.        91 

conversationalist,  a  friend  of  Addison,  and 
at  one  time  contributor  to  the  Spectator. 
There  were  two  experiences  in  his  life 
which  explain  his  presence  in  Virginia  at 
this  time:  First,  his  ancestral  estates  in 
Yorkshire,  England,  had  been  sold  to 
make  good  the  debts  of  his  spendthrift 
father;  and,  secondly,  the  titled  gentleman 
had  been  jilted  by  a  London  belle,  who 
suddenly  found  out  that  she  could  marry  a 
duke,  and  therefore  cast  off  her  allegiance 
to  his  lordship.  The  Low  Land  Beauty 
and  the  London  Belle  may  have  had  some 
part  in  forming  those  tender  ties  which 
bound  these  two  souls  into  a  lifelong 
friendship. 

It  is  perfectly  natural  that  the  fancy 
of  Lord  Fairfax  should  be  greatly  smitten 
by  the  character  of  young  Washington. 
Fairfax  was  a  great  lover  of  field  sports, 
and  in  that  phase  of  Virginia  life  Wash- 


92  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ington  was  to  the  manor  born.  Hunting, 
fishing,  riding  to  the  hounds,  mountain 
climbing,  fencing,  boxing,  swimming, — 
these  were  the  recreations  of  Virginia 
boys  in  Washington's  day.  He  could  out- 
run any  boy  in  the  neighborhood ;  he  had 
no  peer  for  his  age  in  horsemanship;  he 
could  throw  a  stone  farther  than  any  boy 
in  Fredericksburg.  A  point  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock  is  shown  to  the  visitor  where 
Washington  once  threw  a  silver  dollar 
from  one  shore  to  the  other.  The  quick- 
witted Yankee  may  say  that  a  dollar  went 
farther  in  those  days  than  it  does  now, 
but  the  bright  sally  does  not  overthrow 
Washington's  prowess  as  an  athlete.  He 
found  pleasure  in  taking  certain  risks  in- 
variably connected  with  a  sportsman's  life. 

"  No  game  was  ever  yet  worth  a  rap 

For  a  rational  man  to  play, 

In  which  no  disaster  or  mishap 

Could  possibly  find  its  way." 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.        93 

Some  pages  of  his  diary  fairly  quiver 
with  the  sportsman's  enthusiasm, — a  fox- 
hunt, with  the  hounds  in  full  cry,  fleet 
horses  carrying  their  riders  over  ditches 
and  brambles  and  fences  in  hot  pursuit 
of  the  "little  red  rascal"  racing  for  his 
life.  The  picture  is  full  of  the  strength, 
vigor,  and  adventure  of  outdoor  life.  In 
thinking  of  it  one  seems  to  catch  some 
of  the  strains  of  the  old  fox  hunter's 
songs: 

"  The  fox  jumped  over  the  parson's  gate — 
We  '11  all  go  a-huntiug  to-day." 

Boys,  under  such  conditions,  may  be 
the  companions  of  men  old  enough  to  be 
their  grandfathers.  The  sportsman's  de- 
mocracy brings  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  people  together  upon  common  ground. 

Washington  possessed  a  native  prim- 
ness, which  acted  as  a  counterpoise  to  his 
love  for  field  sports,  and  his  self-control 


94  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

prevented  his  love  of  adventure  from  laps- 
ing into  recklessness.  He  knew  how  to 
use  the  world  without  abusing  it.  His 
manly,  courageous,  straightforward  na- 
ture highly  recommended  him  to  the  es- 
teem and  affection  of  Thomas  Lord  Fair- 
fax. 

Through  this  friendship  with  the  Eng- 
lish lord,  George  Washington  passed  to 
his  first  practical  work  of  self-support  in 
life.  The  immense  land  estates  of  Lord 
Fairfax  lying  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains  comprised  5,700,000  acres. 
The  eccentric  bachelor  had  not  come  to 
Virginia  simply  to  get  rid  of  London  life. 
He  had  much  of  the  spirit  of  a  true  Colo- 
nist, and  his  mind  was  big  with  the  pur- 
pose of  opening  up  and  settling  the  vast 
acres  of  rich  land  lying  in  the  lovely  val- 
ley of  the  Shenandoah,  "the  daughter  of 
the  stars."  This  great  tract  of  country 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.        95 

was  unexplored;  its  resources  were  un- 
known, except  to  a  few  wandering  hunt- 
ers and  trappers,  who  had  pushed  west- 
ward into  its  solitudes,  stimulated  by  the 
demands  of  the  fur-trade.  It  was  known 
among  the  Eastern  settlements  as  the 
"Great  Woods."  "Across  it  ran  the  great 
war-trail  of  the  Five  Nations,  passing- 
northeast  and  southwest."  Lord  Fairfax 
had  received  information  from  the  wan- 
dering trappers  that  pioneers  from  the 
North  were  coming  into  the  rich  valley, 
building  their  cabins,  making  settlements, 
and  maintaining  a  squatter  sovereignty, 
without  troubling  themselves  about  title- 
deeds  from  the  owner.  The  first  thing  to 
be  done  was  to  obtain  a  survey  of  the 
estate,  thus  enabling  the  owner  to  locate 
special  tracts  of  land,  define  their  boun- 
daries, and  give  legal  titles.  In  the  spring 
of  1748,  when  Washington  had  just 


96  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

passed  his  sixteenth  birthday,  Lord  Fair- 
fax appointed  him  as  surveyor  of  the  lands 
beyond  the  mountains,  lying  in  the  "Great 
Woods." 

In  March,  1748,  George  Washington 
and  George  Fairfax,  a  son  of  William 
Fairfax,  with  a  few  assistants,  rode 
through  Ashby's  Gap  to  the  wild  lands 
where  they  began  their  work.  Washing- 
ton's diary  records  many  of  their  experi- 
ences. Below  we  give  a  few  quotations, 
in  which  Washington  speaks  for  himself: 

"Friday,  March  nth. — Began  my 
journey  in  company  with  George  Fairfax, 
Esq.  We  traveled  this  day  forty  miles,  to 
Mr.  George  Neavel's,  in  Prince  William 
County." 

"Sunday,  March  I3th. — Rode  to  his 
lordship's  (Lord  Fairfax's)  quarter. 
About  four  miles  higher  up  the  river,  we 
went  through  most  beautiful  groves  of 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.        97 

sugar-trees,  and  spent  the  best  part  of  the 
day  in  admiring  the  trees  and  richness  of 
the  land." 

"Monday,  I4th. — We  sent  our  bag- 
gage to  Captain  Hites's,  near  Frederick- 
town  (afterwards  Winchester),  and  went 
ourselves  down  the  river  sixteen  miles 
(the  land  exceedingly  rich  all  the  way, 
producing  abundance  of  grain,  hemp,  and 
tobacco),  in  order  to  lay  off  some  land  on 
Gate's  Marsh  and  Long  Marsh." 

Here  is  an  account  of  his  first  night  in 
a  squatter's  cabin: 

"Tuesday,  I5th. — Worked  hard  till 
night,  and  then  returned.  After  supper 
we  were  lighted  into  a  room,  and  I,  not 
being  so  good  a  woodsman  as  the  rest, 
stripped  myself  very  orderly,  and  went 
into  the  bed,  as  they  called  it,  when,  to 
my  surprise,  I  found  it  to  be  nothing  but 

a  little  straw  matted  together,  without 
7 


98  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

sheet  or  anything  else,  but  only  a  thread- 
bare blanket,  with  double  its  weight  of 
vermin.  I  was  glad  to  get  up  and  put 
on  my  clothes,  and  lie  as  my  companions 
did.  Had  we  not  have  been  very  tired,  I 
am  sure  we  should  not  have  slept  much 
that  night.  I  made  a  promise  to  sleep 
so  no  more,  choosing  rather  to  sleep  in 
the  open  air  before  a  fire." 

"Friday,  i8th. — We  traveled  up  about 
thirty-five  miles  to  Thomas  Berwick's  on 
the  Potomac,  where  we  found  the  river 
exceedingly  high,  by  reason  of  the  great 
rains  that  had  fallen  among  the  Allegha- 
nies.  They  told  us  it  would  not  be  ford- 
able  for  several  days,  it  being  now  six 
feet  higher  than  usual,  and  rising.  We 
agreed  to  stay  till  Monday.  We  this  day 
called  to  see  the  famed  Warm  Springs. 
We  camped  out  in  the  field  this  night." 

"Sunday,  2Oth. — Finding  the  river  not 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.      ,99 

much  abated,  we,  in  the  evening,  swam 
our  horses  over  to  the  Maryland  side." 

"Monday,  2ist. — We  went  over  in  a 
canoe,  and  traveled  up  the  Maryland  side 
all  day,  in  a  continued  rain,  to  Colonel 
Cresap's,  over  against  the  mouth  of  the 
South  Branch,  about  forty  miles  from  the 
place  of  starting  in  the  morning,  and  over 
the  worst  road,  I  believe,  that  ever  was 
trod  by  man  or  beast." 

This  man  Cresap  was  quite  a  character 
in  that  backwoods  settlement.  He  car- 
ried on  an  extensive  trade  with  the  In- 
dians, and  was  old-fashioned  enough  to 
believe  that  cheating  them  was  wrong. 
Through  his  honesty  he  became  one  of  the 
most  influential  frontiersmen  of  his  time. 
His  home  was  a  backwoods  hotel  to  all 
travelers.  "He  kept  a  big  kettle  ready, 
suspended  to  place  a  fire  under,  near  a 
spring,  for  the  use  of  the  Indians,  who 


ioo          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

often  passed  his  place,  and  for  that  reason 
they  called  him  the  'Big  Spoon.' ' 

Washington's  diary  for  Wednesday, 
March  23d,  contains  this  record  of  a  scene 
witnessed  while  a  guest  at  Colonel  Cre- 
sap's:  "Rained  till  about  two  o'clock,  and 
then  cleared  up,  when  we  were  greatly 
suprised  at  the  sight  of  more  than  thirty 
Indians  coming  from  war  with  only  one 
scalp.  We  had  some  liquor  with  us,  of 
which  we  gave  them  a  part.  This  ele- 
vated their  spirits;  put  them  in  the  humor 
of  dancing.  We  then  had  a  war-dance. 
After  clearing  a  large  scape,  and  making 
a  great  fire  in  the  middle,  the  men  seated 
themselves  around  it,  and  the  speaker 
made  a  grand  speech,  telling  them  in  what 
manner  they  were  to  dance.  After  he  had 
finished,  the  best  dancer  jumped  up,  as 
one  awakened  from  sleep,  and  ran  and 
jumped  about  the  ring  in  a  most  comical 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.      iot 

manner.  He  was  followed  by  the  rest. 
Then  began  their  music,  which  was  per- 
formed with  a  pot  half-full  of  water,  and 
a  deerskin  stretched  tight  over  it,  and  a 
gourd  with  some  shot  in  it  to  rattle,  and' 
a  piece  of  horse's  tail  tied  to  it  to  make  it 
look  fine.  One  person  kept  rattling,  and 
another  drumming  all  the  while  they  were 
dancing." 

Washington  was  away  from  home  just 
four  weeks  on  this  first  outing  trip  as  a 
surveyor.  Lord  Fairfax  was  so  well 
pleased  with  his  work,  that  he  went  at 
once  to  his  estates  in  the  Shenandoah,  and 
built  a  lodge  in  the  wilderness,  naming  it 
"Greenway  Court."  His  intention  was  to 
build  a  great  manor-house  at  this  point, 
and  live  after  the  manner  of  an  English 
earl.  This  intention,  however,  was  never 
carried  out.  He  lived  to  see  his  young 
friend  famous,  and  to  hear  of  the  sur- 


102  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

render  of  Lord  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown. 
He  died  December  12,  1781,  at  the  age  of 
ninety  years. 

Washington's  success  as  a  surveyor 
'soon  won  for  him  a  wide  reputation  in  his 
profession.  Lord  Fairfax  was  so  well 
pleased  with  the  painstaking  work  of  the 
young  man,  that  he  obtained  for  him  the 
appointment  of  public  surveyor,  thus  se- 
curing for  him  steady  employment. 

For  three  years  he  devoted  himself  to 
the  work  of  his  profession.  He  was  paid 
according  to  the  amount  of  work  per- 
formed, earning  from  three  to  twenty  dol- 
lars a  day.  He  had  a  keen  instinct  for 
business,  and  with  his  wages  he  purchased 
rich  tracts  of  land  here  and  there  in  the 
neighborhood,  laying  the  foundation  of 
the  great  estates  owned  by  him  in  after 
years.  It  was  a  hardy,  outdoor  life  he 
lived  during  these  years.  Rough,  hard- 


LEAVING  THE  HOME  NEST.      103 

headed  men  were  his  companions.  It 
was  a  life  beset  with  dangers,  for  there 
was  scarcely,  a  man  on  the  frontier  who 
had  not  been  shot  at  by  an  Indian.  Sharp 
ears  and  quick  hands  were  required  by 
the  men  who  pushed  through  the  forests, 
and  marked  the  plantation  boundaries  for 
the  coming  civilization.  Englishmen  are 
proud  of  Wellington,  and  love  to  point 
to  the  days  when,  on  the  playing-fields 
of  Eton,  the  young  duke  received  the 
training  which  made  Waterloo  possible. 
Surveying  in  the  "Great  Woods"  of  Vir- 
ginia, Washington  developed  the  patience, 
the  courage,  the  perseverance,  the  zeal 
shown  by  him  in  the  terrible  ordeals 
through  which  he  passed  in  the  War  for 
Independence.  The  Revolution  did  not 
produce  George  Washington:  it  simply 
found  him. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER. 

IN  the  year  1751  the  current  of  Wash- 
ington's life  was  turned  in  another 
direction  from  that  of  land  surveyor. 
Lawrence  Washington  was  seriously  ill 
with  consumption.  His  physician  di- 
rected him  to  spend  the  coming  winter 
in  the  Bahamas.  Lawrence  selected  his 
brother  George  to  go  with  him  as  nurse 
and  companion.  In  September  they  set 
sail  for  the  Sunny  South.  The  trip  was  of 
no  benefit  to  Lawrence,  and  George  took 
the  small-pox  during  his  stay  in  the  isl- 
ands. It  may  have  been  a  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance that  he  took  the  disease  at  this 
time,  as  he  was  thus  delivered  from  the 

danger  at  a  future  period,  when  it  was  so 
104 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER.     105 

prevalent  in  the  armies  over  which  he  was 
commander.  This  is  the  first  and  only 
time  that  the  foot  of  George  Washington 
ever  touched  any  soil  other  than  his  native 
America. 

The  two  brothers  returned  to  Mount 
Vernon  the  next  spring,  and  in  July,  1752, 
Lawrence  died,  at  the  age  of  thirty-four 
years.  His  entire  estate  was  left  to  his 
infant  daughter,  with  the  provision,  in 
case  of  her  death  without  issue,  that  it 
should  revert  to  George,  who  was  also 
appointed  guardian  of  the  child,  and  one 
of  the  five  executors  of  the  will.  At  this 
time  he  was  twenty  years  old.  The  little 
girl  died  a  few  years  after,  and  George 
Washington  became  the  owner  of  Mount 
Vernon. 

Before  leaving  for  the  Bahamas,  Law- 
rence had  secured  for  George  the  com- 
mission of  major  in  the  Virginia  militia. 


io6          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

One  year  after  this,  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie,  the  king's  representa- 
tive in  Virginia,  divided  the  Colony  into 
four  military  districts,  giving  Washington 
charge  of  one,  with  the  rank  of  major  and 
adjutant-general.  This  position  required 
him  to  inspect,  organize,  drill,  and  disci- 
pline the  militia  of  the  entire  district,  and 
be  ready  at  any  time  for  war  on  the  fron- 
tier. It  was  a  position  of  great  respon- 
sibility for  a  mere  youth  of  nineteen,  and 
shows  the  high  esteem  in  which  his  self- 
possession,  judgment,  and  ability  were 
held  by  the  older  men  in  the  Colony. 

This  was  a  wise  move  on  the  part  of 
the  Colonial  governor,  for  affairs  on  the 
western  border  looked  threatening,  and 
it  became  Virginia  to  gird  herself  for  con- 
flict. 

At  this  period  the  French  and  English 
were  the  contesting  parties  for  the  posses- 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER.     107 

sion  of  the  New  World.  The  English 
Colonial  possessions  were  along  the  At- 
lantic Coast.  The  Crown  Charters  of 
these  Colonies  gave  them  possessions  run- 
ning west  as  far  as  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
(No  one  at  that  time  knew  just  how  far 
that  was.)  The  English  method  of  colo- 
nization was  that  of  cutting  away  the 
forest,  planting  farms,  founding  homes, 
and  building  towns.  As  yet,  these  settle- 
ments had  not  gone  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountains.  Like  Englishmen 
everywhere,  they  wanted  more  elbow- 
room,  and  a  company  of  enterprising  Vir- 
ginians formed  a  corporation,  known  as 
the  "Ohio  Company,"  for  the  purpose  of 
colonizing  the  fertile  lands  lying  along  the 
Ohio  River. 

The  French  had  entered  the  New 
World  through  the  two  great  waterways, 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi  Rivers, 


io8          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

with  military  posts  at  New  Orleans  and 

• 
Quebec.     Their  methods  of  colonization 

were  chiefly  by  forts  and  trading-posts. 
They  had  determined  to  establish  a  great 
"despotic  Catholic  Empire"  in  the  central 
portion  of  North  America,  and  had  made 
up  their  minds  that  the  English,  their  old- 
time  enemies,  should  not  extend  their  do- 
mains west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains. 
They  had  carried  out  their  plan  so  far  as 
to  project  a  line  of  French  forts  and  trad- 
ing-posts, touching  the  modern  sites  of 
New  Orleans,  Natchez,  Vincennes,  Fort 
Wayne,  Toledo,  Detroit,  Ogdensburg, 
and  Montreal. 

The  French  governor  of  Canada  had 
sent  his  agents  to  take  possession  of  the 
district  claimed  by  the  Ohio  Company. 
They  buried  plates  of  lead  at  the  junctions 
of  the  tributaries  to  the  Ohio  River,  thus 
claiming  authority  over  these  regions,  and 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER.     109 

warned  the  Indians  riot  to  trade  with  the 
English  Colonists.  It  was  a  defiant  chal- 
lenge. Reduced  to  its  simplest  terms,  it 
meant:  "There  are  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains; beyond  are  the  French  possessions; 
thus  far  shalt  thoti  come,  and  no  farther." 
It  requires  something  more  than  bra- 
vado to  cow  an  Englishman.  He  will 
claim  his  rights,  even  if  he  is  to  be  shot  at 
in  the  process.  So  the  agents  of  the  Ohio 
Company  pushed  westward  over  the 
mountains,  and  the  French  were  very 
busy  making  the  life  of  the  English  miser- 
able all  along  the  border.  The  French 
governor  of  Canada,  Duquesne,  had  sent 
a  military  force  into  the  debatable  terri- 
tory, charged  with  the  twofold  work  of 
driving  off  English  traders,  and  making 
alliances  with  the  neighboring  Indian 
tribes.  They  had  taken  possession  of  an 
English  trader's  quarters,  raised  the 


no          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

French  flag,  and  sent  the  occupants,  as 
prisoners,  to  Canada. 

Governor  Dinwiddie,  a  brusque  old 
Scotchman,  combined  private  interests 
with  official  duties  in  his  relations  to  the 
frontier.  He  was  one  of  the  twenty  share- 
holders in  the  Ohio  Company.  He  was 
also  the  king's  representative  as  Colonial 
governor  of  Virginia.  He  sensed  the  sit- 
uation in  all  its  serious  consequences. 
French  supremacy  on  the  frontier  meant 
financial  ruin  to  the  Ohio  Company,  and 
blocked  the  progress  of  the  English  Colo- 
nies on  the  American  continent.  Very 
early  in  the  history  of  the  affair,  Dinwid- 
die had  communicated  with  the  authori- 
ties in  England,  requesting  them  to  out- 
line a  policy  for  his  administration.  The 
answer  was  prompt  and  direct.  He  was 
instructed  to  keep  his  hold  upon  the  val- 
ley of  the  Ohio.  Should  the  French  con- 


'TROUBLE    ON   THE  FRONTIER.        Ill 

tinue  trespassing  in  that  quarter,  he  was 
"to  require  of  them  peaceably  to  depart." 
If  they  refused,  "we  do  hereby  strictly 
charge  and  command  you  to  drive  them 
off  by  force  of  arms." 

The  Colonial  governor,  acting  accord- 
ing to  instructions,  put  the  stage  in  order 
for  the  play  of  diplomacy.  He  commis- 
sioned Major  George  Washington  to  be 
the  bearer  of  a  letter  to  the  French  officer 
on  the  disputed  territory,  requesting  the 
French  military  forces  to  withdraw  from 
the  Valley  of  the  Ohio.  It  was  a  task  be- 
set with  many  dangers.  The  route  led 
through  a  trackless  wilderness  of  five  hun- 
dred miles.  Streams  swollen  by  early 
winter  rains  were  to  be  forded,  snow- 
covered  mountains  were  to  be  crossed, 
wandering  tribes  of  savage  Indians  were 
to  be  encountered  and  conciliated.  More 
than  this,  the  diplomatic  work,  after 


ii2          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

reaching  the  wily  French  authorities,  was 
of  a  delicate  nature,  requiring  a  cool  head, 
patient  forbearance,  and  accurate  judg- 
ment. It  is  a  weighty  testimony  to  the 
prudence,  patience,  courage,  and  judg- 
ment of  young  Major  Washington,  now 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  that  he  was  se- 
lected as  the  Virginia  envoy  for  this  im- 
portant mission. 

On  the  3Oth  day  of  October,  1753, 
Washington  received  his  commission 
from  the  governor,  and  on  the  same  day 
set  out  on  his  journey  from  Williamsburg, 
the  capital  of  Virginia.  At  Fredericks- 
burg  he  stopped  to  say  good-bye  to  his 
mother,  and  secure  the  services  of  Van 
Braam,  his  old  fencing-master,  as  French 
interpreter.  From  thence  he  passed 
through  Alexander  and  Winchester.  In 
the  latter  he  obtained  the  horses,  tents, 
and  other  equipments  needed  for  his  jour- 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER.      113 

ney.  The  real  start  on  this  mission  was 
to  be  made  from  Willis  Creek,  the  present 
site  of  the  city  of  Cumberland,  then  the 
outpost  of  civilization. 

Washington  arrived  at  Willis  Creek  on 
November  I4th,  and  made  further  selec- 
tion of  his  companions  for  the  journey — 
Christopher  Gist,  an  experienced  fron- 
tiersman; Davidson,  an  Indian  interpre- 
ter; and  four  other  men  versed  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  "Great  Woods."  Chris- 
topher Gist  knew  the  way  to  an  Indian 
village,  called  Logstown,  on  the  Ohio 
River,  seventeen  miles  below  the  present 
city  of  Pittsburg.  After  a  week's  travel, 
averaging  ten  miles  a  day,  they  arrived 
at  the  Monongahela  River,  striking  it  at 
a  place  called  Turtle  Creek.  Here  Wash- 
ington divided  his  party,  sending  his  bag- 
gage down  the  river  in  a  boat  under  the 
care  of  two  men.  The  other  division 


ii4          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

swam  their  horses  over  the  swollen  river, 
and  made  their  way  across  the  country  to 
the  point  where  the  Monongahela  and 
Alleghany  Rivers  form  the  Ohio.  The 
overland  company  reached  the  forks  of 
the  Ohio  some  time  before  the  arrival  of 
the  party  in  charge  of  the  boat,  and  Wash- 
ington employed  the  time  in  reconnoiter- 
ing  the  country  in  the  neighborhood.  He 
saw  at  once  the  importance  of  the  point 
where  the  two  rivers  joined  to  form  the 
Ohio,  noting  it  as  a  strategic  position  for 
future  operations. 

At  the  request  of  Washington,  a  coun- 
cil of  Indian  chiefs  had  been  called  at 
Logstown  by  Shingis,  the  Sachem  of  the 
Delawares.  It  was  delicate  work  to 
handle  these  Indians.  The  French  agents 
had  been  among  them  making  alliances, 
and  had  presented  three  of  the  chiefs  with 
''speech-belts,"  as  tokens  of  friendship. 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER,     115 

Washington  explained  to  the  council-  the 
orders  which  he  had  received  from  the 
governor  of  Virginia,  and  so  conducted 
the  interview  that  the  Indians  declared 
their  preference  for  the  English,  and  as- 
sured him  that  they  would  send  back  the 
''speech-belts"  received  from  the  French. 
After  a  delay  of  five  days  with  these 
adroit  savages,  Washington  secured  three 
chiefs  and  an  old  Indian  hunter  to  accom- 
pany his  party  to  Venango  (now  Frank- 
lin, Pennsylvania),  the  outpost  of  the 
French  forces.  On  the  4th  of  December 
Washington  arrived  at  Venango.  His 
first  view  of  this  outpost  must  have  stirred 
his  blood.  He  there  caught  sight  of  the 
French  flag  floating  over  the  captured 
quarters  of  an  English  trader.  Captain 
Joncaire  was  the  officer  in  charge  of  the 
post,  to  whom  Washington  presented 
himself,  and  made  known  his  mission. 


n6          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Joncaire  informed  him  that  his  superior 
officer  was  stationed  at  Fort  Le  Bceuf, 
a  point  fourteen  miles  south  of  Lake  Erie. 
He,  however,  strenuously  endeavored  to 
prevent  Washington  from  going  forward. 
He  was  lavish  in  his  hospitality,  but  did 
all  that  diplomacy  and  whisky  could  do 
to  alienate  the  Indians  from  the  service 
of  the  English.  There  was  every  indica- 
tion that  the  French  had  come  into  the 
Valley  of  the  Ohio  to  stay.  Joncaire, 
somewhat  flushed  over  his  wine,  said  in 
the  presence  of  Washington:  "It  was  their 
absolute  design  to  take  possession  of  the 
Ohio,  and  they  would  do  it." 

On  the  7th  of  December,  Washington 
left  Venango,  and  pressed  forward 
through  sleet  and  snow  sixty  miles  far- 
ther to  Fort  Le  Bceuf,  where  he  met 
the  French  commandant,  M.  de  Sainte 
Pierre.  Here  again  he  was  received  with 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER.     117 

great  hospitality,  offset  by  the  best  work 
the  Frenchmen  could  put  in  to  induce  the 
Indian  chiefs  to  renounce  their  friendship 
for  the  English.  Washington  presented 
the  letter  from  Governor  Dinwiddie,  and 
received  from  the  French  commandant 
his  sealed  reply. 

The  journey  homeward  was  full  of  ad- 
venture and  peril.  The  pack-horses  gave 
out,  and  Washington,  full  of  desire  to  re- 
port to  his  governor  as  quickly  as  possi- 
ble, left  the  horses  in  charge  of  the  other 
members  of  the  company,  while  he  and 
Gist,  in  Indian  dress,  pushed  forward  on 
foot  through  the  woods. 

On  this  return  journey  Washington 
was  shot  at  by  a  treacherous  Indian,  who 
was  acting  as  their  guide.  The  trials  and 
sufferings  in  getting  across  the  Ohio 
River  may  be  best  told  in  Washington's 
own  words:  "There  was  no  way  of  getting 


n8          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

over  but  on  a  raft,  which  we  set  about, 
with  but  one  poor  hatchet,  and  finished 
just  after  sunsetting.  This  was  a  whole 
day's  work ;  we  next  got  it  launched,  then 
went  on  board  of  it,  and  set  off ;  but  before 
we  were  half-way  over,  we  were  jammed 
in  the  ice  in  such  a  manner  that  we  ex- 
pected every  moment  our  raft  to  sink  and 
ourselves  perish.  I  put  out  my  setting- 
pole  to  try  to  stop  the  raft,  that  the  ice 
might  pass  by,  when  the  rapidity  of  the 
stream  threw  it  with  so  much  violence 
against  the  pole  that  it  jerked  me  out  into 
ten  feet  of  water,  but  I  fortunately  saved 
myself  by  catching  hold  of  one  of  the  raft- 
logs. 

"Notwithstanding  all  our  efforts,  we 
could  not  get  to  either  shore;  but  were 
obliged,  as  we  were  near  an  island,  to  quit 
our  raft,  and  make  to  it.  The  cold  was  so 
extremely  severe  that  Mr.  Gist  had  all  his 


TROUBLE  ON  THE  FRONTIER.     119 

fingers  and  some  of  his  toes  frozen,  and 
the  water  was  shut  up  so  hard  that  we 
found  no  difficulty  in  getting  off  the  isl- 
and on  the  ice  in  the  morning,  and  went 
to  Mr.  Frazier's." 

Here  Washington  hired  horses,  and 
pushed  eastward  over  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains,  and  in  a  few  days  arrived  in 
Williamsburg,  presenting  the  letter  of  the 
French  commandant  to  the  governor. 
The  letter  was  couched  in  diplomatic 
form,  but  its  meaning  was  easily  under- 
stood. The  French  refused  to  withdraw 
from  the  Ohio. 

Washington's  journal,  kept  while  on 
this  trip,  was  considered  of  such  impor- 
tance, that  the  governor  requested  it  for 
publication,  sending  a  copy  to  each  of  the 
Colonial  governors,  and  calling  the  atten- 
tion of  the  home  authorities  to  the  con- 
tents of  the  book. 


120          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

This  journey  was  a  failure,  so  far  as  the 
request  of  Governor  Dinwiddie  was  con- 
cerned. It  was  a  success  in  the  revelation 
it  made  of  the  ability  and  character  of 
Major  Washington.  He  was  known  now 
as  a  wise  organizer,  a  skillful  reconnoi- 
terer  of  military  positions,  a  judicious 
treaty-maker  with  the  Indians,  and  of 
dauntless  pluck  and  courage  in  the  pres- 
ence of  danger.  He  was  Virginia's  rising 
man. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

UNDER  FIRE. 

THE  news  of  Washington's  return, 
and  the  contents  of  Saint  Pierre's 
letter,  caused  much  excitement  in 
Virginia.  The  authorities  were  brought 
face  to  face  with  war.  The  governor  called 
for  volunteers,  enlisting  officers  were  put 
at  work,  and  war-drums  were  beating  in 
many  portions  of  the  Old  Dominion.  The 
House  of  Burgesses  presented  much  op- 
position to  the  governor's  plans,  and  shied 
away  from  their  responsibility  of  voting 
military  supplies,  by  doubting  the  king's 
right  to  take  possession  of  the  Ohio  Val- 
ley. By  shrewd  political  management,  the 
governor  secured  a  grant  of  ten  thousand 
pounds  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  set- 


122  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

tiers  on  the  borders.  He  and  his  council 
issued  orders  to  erect  at  once  a  fort  at 
the  junction  of  the  Monongahela  and  Al- 
leghany  Rivers,  the  point  selected  by 
Washington  during  his  trip  as  envoy  to 
the  French  officer.  Captain  Trent,  a 
trader  and  frontiersman,  was  sent  for- 
ward, with  such  men  as  would  enlist  from 
the  back  settlements,  to  begin  the  con- 
struction of  the  fort. 

A  woodchopper  and  his  ax  awoke  the 
echoes  for  quite  a  distance  in  the  primitive 
forest;  in  fact,  any  sound  made  by  a  hu- 
man being  traveled  quite  easily  on  the 
Ohio  at  this  time.  This  band  of  tree- 
cutters  and  log-hewers  soon  attracted  at- 
tention by  their  work.  Indian  scouts 
brought  the  news  to  a  French  fort  up  the 
Alleghany  River,  and  a  bright,  young  offi- 
cer quietly  slipped  one  thousand  French 
and  Indians  into  canoes  and  boats,  floated 


UNDER  FIRE.  123 

down  the  Alleghany,  seized  the  point,  and 
marched  the  Virginians  out  of  their  quar- 
ters, telling  them  he  wanted  to  see  no  man 
of  them  for  a  year.  The  French  officer 
then  set  to  work  enlarging  and  complet- 
ing the  captured  fort,  renaming  it  Fort 
Duquesne. 

As  a  reward  for  services  rendered  in 
the  expedition  to  the  Ohio,  Washington 
was  promoted  to  the  position  of  lieuten- 
ant-colonel of  a  Virginia  regiment,  Col- 
onel Fry  commanding.  There  was  a  de- 
sire prevalent  in  high  quarters  to  place 
Washington  first  in  command,  but  he  pro- 
tested, saying,  "I  have  too  sincere  a  love 
for  my  country  to  undertake  that  which 
may  tend  to  the  prejudice  of  it." 

Through  the  winter  months  Washing- 
ton was  actively  engaged  in  raising  re- 
cruits, drilling  and  disciplining  them  for 
service.  In  this  preparation  for  his  first 


i24          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

military  campaign,  he  found  himself  in 
the  midst  of  perplexities  and  hindrances, 
which  annoyed  and  embarrassed  him  all 
through  his  military  career — petty  wran- 
glings  between  the  Colonial  governor  and 
the  House  of  Burgesses;  sectional  jealous- 
ies and  narrow  provincialism  of  the  indi- 
vidual Colonies;  prejudices  between  the 
army  officers  who  bore  the  king's  com- 
mission and  those  who  held  their  rank  by 
Colonial  appointment;  and  the  shiftless, 
mutinous  dispositions  of  many  of  the  com- 
mon soldiers. 

In  the  midst  of  these  exasperating  diffi- 
culties, Washington  left  Alexandria  on 
the  2(1  day  of  April,  1754,  with  two  com- 
panies of  soldiers  destined  to  support  the 
fort-building  party  on  the  Ohio.  He 
reached  Willis  Creek  on  April  2Oth,  and 
there  learned  of  the  capture  of  the  fort  by 
the  French.  He  immediately  communi- 


UNDER  FIRE.  125 

cated  the  news  to  Governor  Dinwiddie, 
and  wrote  letters  to  the  governors  of 
Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  asking  them 
to  send  forward  troops.  He  did  not  wait 
for  orders  concerning  his  movements,  but 
pushed  on  with  his  troops  and  military 
stores  to  Redstone  Creek,  a  point  on  the 
Monongahela,  about  half-way  to  Fort 
Duquesne.  By  this  plan  he  found  em- 
ployment for  his  men,  and  constructed  a 
road  over  which  the  reserved  troops  could 
march  more  easily.  By  the  latter  part  of 
May  they  had  crossed  the  Alleghany 
Mountains,  and  had  gone  into  camp  at  a 
place  called  Great  Meadows.  Washing- 
ton described  this  place  as  "a  charming 
field  for  an  encounter." 

The  French  and  English  had  their 
scouts  out  in  the  direction  of  danger,  and 
kept  their  respective  headquarters  well 
informed  as  to  the  movements  of  the 


126  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

enemy — that  is  the  word  now  to  be  used 
in  describing  the  relations  between  the 
English  and  French  in  America.  It  was 
the  act  of  an  enemy  when  the  French  took 
possession  of  the  fort  on  the  Ohio. 

Washington  had  scarcely  settled  his 
camp  at  Great  Meadows  when  he  was  in- 
formed by  his  Indian  scouts  that  a  party 
of  French  soldiers  were  on  the  march 
from  Fort  Duquesne,  with  the  intention 
of  giving  battle  to  the  English  forces. 
Fearing  a  surprise,  he  did  not  wait  for 
their  arrival.  His  righting  blood  was 
stirred,  and  he  proposed  now  to  do  his 
duty  as  a  soldier.  Taking  forty  of  his 
men,  he  pressed  forward  on  a  night  march 
to  surprise  the  enemy.  He  joined  his  In- 
dian friends  at  sunrise  on  the  morning  of 
the  28th  of  May.  He  found  the  French 
concealed  in  a  rocky  ravine.  The  mo- 
ment they  saw  Washington  and  his  sol- 


UNDER  FIRE.  127 

cliers  they  sprang  to  arms.  Washington 
gave  the  command  to  fire,  and  a  brisk 
fight  followed.  The  French  commander, 
Jumonville,  was  killed,  with  nine  of  his 
followers,  and  twenty-two  French  were 
taken  prisoners,  and  sent  to  Virginia.  On 
the  English  side,  one  man  was  killed  and 
two  wounded. 

After  the  engagement  Washington 
marched  back  to  Great  Meadows,  to  await 
the  arrival  of  re-enforcements,  and  erect 
fortifications  for  defensive  action.  Here 
an  "independent  company"  from  South 
Carolina  joined  him,  and  Colonel  Fry's 
company  of  Virginia  Volunteers  came  up 
without  their  colonel,  Fry  having  died  on 
the  march.  Washington  was  now  com- 
mander of  the  whole  military  force,  num- 
bering something  over  three  hundred 
men. 

This    skirmish    in   the   backwoods   of 


128          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Pennsylvania  was  a  small  affair  consid- 
ered in  itself.  Regarded  in  the  light  of 
issues  involved,  it  was  of  momentous  im- 
portance. It  was  the  opening  of  a  world- 
wide war  drama.  Two  flags  met  that 
May-day  on  the  field  of  Mars,  the  one 
bearing  the  Lilies  of  France  and  the  other 
the  Cross  of  St.  George.  By  the  order  of 
Colonel  Washington  the  war-dogs  were 
unleashed,  and  their  fierce  yelping  was 
heard  on  the  continent  of  Europe  for  sixty 
years.  In  the  fortunes  of  that  long  war 
France  lost  her  possessions  in  America, 
England  her  "most  nourishing  Colonies," 
and  America  won  her  independence  under 
the  illustrious  Washington.  The  war 
drama  opened  by  the  killing  of  Ensign 
Jumonville  in  a  backwoods  skirmish;  it 
closed  by  paralyzing  the  arm  of  Napoleon 
at  Waterloo. 

Washington  knew  full  well  what  devel- 


UNDER  FIRE.  129 

opments  would  follow  this  first  engage- 
ment with  the  French.  He  was  in  a  dan- 
gerous position,  far  removed  from  the 
base  of  supplies,  and  confronted  by  an 
opposing  force  outnumbering  his  army 
four  to  one.  His  victory  in  the  first  fight 
was  only  a  sugar-coating  to  the  drastic 
medicine  the  French  commander  had  pre- 
pared for  him.  He  kept  strenuously  at 
work  on  the  fortifications  at  Great  Mead- 
ows, giving  it  the  suggestive  name  of  Fort 
Necessity. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  nine  hundred 
Frenchmen,  besides  many  Indians,  were 
drawn  up  in  battle  line  along  the  border 
of  the  neighboring  woods.  Skirmishing 
went  on  all  day,  with  more  or  less  loss  on 
both  sides.  In  the  evening  Washington 
found  his  men  exhausted.  It  had  been 
raining  all  day.  The  rifle-pits  were  pools 
of  water,  and  their  powder  was  wet  and 


130          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

useless.  The  barb  of  battle  must  have 
been  somewhat  dull  on  the  part  of  the 
French  also.  In  the  early  evening  the 
French  commander  requested  the  privi- 
lege of  coming  into  the  fort  under  a  flag 
of  truce,  to  present  the  terms  upon  which 
he  would  receive  the  surrender  of  Wash- 
ington. This  was  declined  by  Washing- 
ton. Later,  however,  the  terms  of  sur- 
render were  accepted,  and  at  midnight 
under  a  pelting  rain,  by  the  light  of  flick- 
ering camp  torches,  the  articles  of  sur- 
render were  signed  by  both  parties.  The 
English  were  to  march  out  of  the  fort  the 
next  morning  with  the  honors  of  war.  It 
must  have  been  a  humiliating  experience 
on  that  4th  of  July  morning,  1754,  when 
George  Washington  marched  his  surren- 
dered forces  out  of  Fort  Necessity  with 
drums  beating  and  colors  flying.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  in  this  connection  that 


UNDER  FIRE.  131 

this  is  the  first  and   only  time   George 
Washington  ever  surrendered. 

Washington's  reputation  at  home  did 
not  suffer  from  this  humiliating  experi- 
ence. His  friends  and  neighbors  looked 
upon  him  as  an  experienced  soldier.  The 
young  colonel  had  been  tested  in  his  first 
campaign;  he  had  stood  under  fire.  The 
fortunes  of  war  had  brought  him  both  the 
experience  of  victory  and  defeat.  The 
House  of  Burgesses  tendered  to  him  and 
his  officers  a  vote  of  thanks  "for  their 
brave  and  gallant  defense  of  their  coun- 
try," and  voted  a  bounty  of  four  dollars 
to  each  of  the  soldiers  under  his  com- 
mand. The  powder-stains  on  his  face 
gave  new  dignity  to  his  presence  in  offi- 
cial quarters,  and  emboldened  him  to  talk 
some  solid,  common  sense  to  the  gov- 
ernor concerning  military  operations  on 
the  frontier. 


132          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

After  reporting  to  the  governor  at 
Williamsburg,  Washington  returned  to 
his  somewhat  demoralized  regiment  sta- 
tioned at  Alexandria,  where,  with  a  cheer- 
ful spirit,  he  set  about  the  work  of  drill- 
ing and  recruiting  the  troops  under  his 
command,  believing,  with  Hosea  Biglow, 

"That  civlyzation 

Doos  git  forrid, 
Sometimes  upon  a  powder-cart," 

although  at  that  particular  moment  it  did 
not  seem  to  be  coming  George  Washing- 
ton's way. 

The  young  colonel  had  a  supreme  re- 
gard for  his  personal  dignity.  There  was 
nothing  uppish  connected  with  this  ele- 
ment of  his  character,  but  it  was  a  serious 
matter  to  trifle  with  Washington's  man- 
hood. This  sensitive  nerve  in  the  young 
Virginian  had  been  touched  by  an  order 
issued  from  the  Home  Government, 


UNDER  FIRE.  133 

whereby  army  officers  holding  the  king's 
commission  should  rank  above  provincial 
officers.  It  further  stipulated  that  "pro- 
vincial generals  and  field  officers  should 
have  no  rank  where  a  general  or  field  offi- 
cer holding  a  royal  commission  was 
present."  This  order  occasioned  endless 
jealousies  among  various  military  officers 
of  the  Colonial  period,  and  threatened 
serious  trouble  in  a  campaign  where  regu- 
lars and  provincial  troops  were  engaged. 
Governor  Dinwiddie  hit  upon  a  plan 
whereby  he  thought  to  obviate  these  diffi- 
culties. He  divided  the  military  forces 
of  Virginia  into  ten  independent  com- 
panies of  one  hundred  men  each,  placing 
over  each  company  an  officer  ranking  as 
captain.  He  offered  the  command  of  one 
of  these  companies  to  Colonel  Washing- 
ton. It  was  a  stupid  blunder;  the  Scotch- 
man had  reckoned  without  his  host.  No 


134          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

doubt  the  governor's  intentions  were 
good.  He  longed  for  harmony  and  peace 
among  his  army  officers.  But  his  action 
shows  that  he  was  deficient  in  that  fine 
sense  and  pose  of  judgment  requisite  to 
appreciate  the  spirit  and  estimate  the 
ability  of  such  a  man  as  Washington.  To 
have  accepted  this  proposition  would  have 
required  Washington  to  resign  his  com- 
mission as  colonel,  and  accept  the  lower 
rank  of  captain,  rendering  him  liable  to 
be  commanded  by  any  young  ensign  who 
perchance  held  the  king's  commission. 
There  was  not  a  drop  of  craven  blood  in 
the  veins  of  Washington.  He  could  not, 
in  justice  to  his  manhood,  submit  to  this 
unmerited  degradation,  and  men  think 
the  better  of  him  for  acting  as  he  did.  He 
therefore  resigned  his  commission,  and 
quietly  retired  to  Mount  Vernon. 

In  the  meantime  the  English  Govern- 


UNDER  FIRE.  135 

ment  became  more  deeply  interested  in 
American  affairs.  "Carthage  must  be  de- 
stroyed!" was  Rome's  cry  when  her  Scipio 
drove  Hannibal  from  the  fields  of  Italy. 
The  home  Government  had  much  of  the 
same  spirit  in  relation  to  the  French  in 
America.  Two  campaigns  were  organ- 
ized against  the  French,  one  to  proceed 
from  New  York  and  attack  Nova  Scotia; 
the  other  moving  from  Virginia  against 
the  French  on  the  Ohio.  The  Colonies 
were  to  see  fighting  on  the  scale  of  Eng- 
lish regulars. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1755  transports 
bearing  two  English  regiments  sailed  up 
the  Potomac  River,  and  put  the  red- 
coated  soldiers  ashore  at  Alexandria. 
These  troops  were  under  the  command 
of  Major-General  Edward  Braddock,  a 
brave,  dashing,  reckless  Irishman. 

One  can  easily  imagine  the  thoughts 


136          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

and  feelings  of  Washington,  as  he  stood 
on  the  piazza,  at  Mount  Vernon,  and 
watched  these  military  transports  make 
their  way  slowly  up  the  Potomac.  He 
knew  better  than  any  military  man  in  Vir- 
ginia the  route  over  which  these  troops 
must  march  to  the  scene  of  action.  His 
knowledge  of  the  country  lying  about  the 
forks  of  the  Ohio  would  be  invaluable  to 
a  general  proposing  a  military  attack  on 
the  French  at  Fort  Dtiquesne.  Further- 
more, His  Majesty's  regulars  were  to  be 
accompanied  on  the  expedition  by  Vir- 
ginia militia,  with  a  mixture  of  carpenters 
and  teamsters  thrown  in.  It  was  a  natu- 
ral presumption  on  the  part  of  Washing- 
ton, mingled  with  no  element  of  conceit, 
that  his  knowledge  and  experience  gained 
in  those  regions  should  be  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  General  Braddock.  His  in- 
terest in  military  affairs  would  also  natu- 


UNDER  FIRE.  137 

rally  lead  him  to  become  a  close  student 
of  such  a  campaign  as  the  one  now  in 
preparation.  He  had  read  military  books, 
he  had  commanded  provincial  soldiers, 
and  he  had  seen  some  righting,  but  he  had 
never  seen  military  operations  conducted 
on  such  an  extensive  plan  by  soldiers 
skHled  in  the  military  discipline  of  the 
Old  World.  Upon  Braddock's  arrival  in 
America,  he  wrote  him  a  letter  of  wel- 
come, and  during  all  the  days  of  prepara- 
tion at  Alexandria  he  was  a  frequent  vis- 
itor at  the  British  headquarters. 

General  Braddock  and  his  officers  set 
small  store  upon  the  lean,  bony  Virginia 
militiamen,  and  on  many  occasions  were 
open  in  their  demonstrations  of  contempt. 
Washington  was,  however,  exempt  from 
such  treatment.  This  well-mounted 
horseman,  riding  through  the  British 
camp,  attracted  their  attention,  and  called 


138          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

forth  their  admiration.  He  combined  the 
strength  of  a  backwoodsman  with  the 
grace  and  dignity  of  an  aristocrat.  Six 
feet  two  inches  of  such  manhood  com- 
mands respect  and  attention  anywhere. 
Braddock  took  to  the  young  Virginian, 
and  the  outcome  was  iust  what  George 
Washington  desired.  General  Braddock 
invited  him  to  join  his  military  family  as 
aide-de-camp.  Washington  accepted  the 
position,  becoming  the  most  valuable 
officer  on  the  general's  staff. 

The  story  of  Braddock's  campaign  and 
defeat  is  known  to  every  school-child. 
The  Qth  day  of  July,  1755,  is  one  of  the 
saddest  in  early  American  history.  Two 
thousand  soldiers,  with  all  their  military 
equipage,  supplies,  and  artillery,  form- 
ing a  procession  four  miles  long,  were  to 
march  five  hundred  miles  through  vir- 
gin forests  and  over  trackless  moun- 


UNDER  FIRE.  139 

tains.  After  the  outposts  of  civilization 
were  passed,  they  were  likely  to  be  har- 
assed by  ambushed  Indians  and  French 
enemies.  The  order  had  gone  forth  from 
the  headstrong,  quick-tempered  com- 
mander that  the  campaign  was  to  be  con- 
ducted after  the  style  of  maneuvering 
armies  in  the  open  fields  of  Europe.  It 
was  an  enterprise  freighted  with  such 
hazard  that  even  a  Napoleon  might  have 
trembled  at  the  undertaking.  He  spurned 
the  advice  of  the  experienced  Washing- 
ton and  the  sagacious  Franklin  concern- 
ing Indian  ambuscades.  "These  sav- 
ages," said  Braddock,  with  a  smile,  ''may 
indeed  be  a  formidable  enemy  to  raw 
American  militia,  but  upon  the  king's 
regulars  and  disciplined  troops,  sir,  it  is 
impossible  that  they  should  make  any  im- 
pression." 

At  last  the  army  began  its  march  west- 


140          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ward.  Its  progress  was  slow.  Elaborate 
roads  were  to  be  made,  and  every  delay 
incident  to  transporting  such  a  force  by 
such  methods.  At  some  places  in  the 
march  they  occupied  four  days  in  getting 
twelve  miles.  Braddock  snubbed  Wash- 
ington for  suggesting  that  pack-horses 
would  serve  their  purposes  better  than 
army  wagons. 

At  the  ford  of  the  Youghiogheny 
Washington  was  taken  sick  with  fever. 
Braddock  assigned  him  a  guard,  and  left 
him  behind  for  rest  and  recovery,  promis- 
ing him,  with  his  word  of  honor,  that  he 
should  be  present  and  witness  the  battle. 
Washington's  recovery  was  speedy,  and 
he  rejoined  Braddock  at  the  first  ford  of 
the  Monongahela,  fifteen  miles  from  Fort 
Duquesne.  The  army  must  cross  the  river 
again  five  miles  below.  They  now  began 
to  see  traces  of  Indians  and  French  scouts 


UNDER  FIRE.  141 

in  the  neighborhood,  and  lost  a  picket 
here  and  there  by  sharpshooters.  Wash- 
ington politely  suggested  the  sending 
ahead  of  the  Virginia  rangers,  who  knew 
something  about  woods-fighting  and  In- 
dian surprises.  Braddock  refused,  and 
set  about  awing  the  enemy  by  causing 
his  troops  to  go  through  the  ceremony 
of  a  military  parade.  On  the  9th  of  July, 
about  noon,  the  order  was  given  to  cross 
the  ford.  Washington  was  very  much 
impressed  by  the  splendid  appearance  of 
the  army  as  it  crossed  the  river.  The 
dark  green  of  the  forest  contrasting  with 
the  bright  scarlet  uniforms  of  the  soldiers, 
the  midday  sunlight  flashing  from  the 
bright  bayonets  and  sword-hilts,  the  army 
moving  forward  to  the  strains  of  the 
Grenadier's  March, — all  these  features  of 
that  dreadful  day  were  so  firmly  set  in 
the  memory  of  Washington  that  he  fre- 


142  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

quently  recalled  them  in  the  days  when 
he  commanded  the  half-starved,  poorly- 
clad  American  patriots,  who  helped  him 
win  our  independence. 

The  army  was  scarcely  across  the  river 
when  a  man  dressed  in  buckskin  uniform 
and  wearing  the  badge  of  a  French  officer 
came  out  of  the  woods.  He  looked  at 
the  advancing  army  for  a  moment,  then 
turned  his  face  towards  the  forest,  and 
waved  his  hat  high  over  his  head.  It  was 
the  signal  for  the  concealed  French  and 
Indians  to  open  fire.  The  ambushed 
enemy  poured  volley  after  volley  into  the 
compact  English  ranks  at  point-blank 
range.  It  was  terrible  carnage.  The 
officers  stood  to  their  posts  like  brave 
men,  General  Braddock  and  Washington 
bravest  among  them.  Dead  men  were  all 
about  them,  and  yet  the  English  could 
see  no  living  enemy  against  whom  to 


UNDER  FIRE,  143 

direct  their  .fire,  so  they  shot  wildly  into 
the  woods.  General  Braddock  was  learn- 
ing at  sad  cost  that  trees  and  boulders 
could  be  utilized  in  battle  with  more  tell- 
ing results  than  orderly  battle-lines  firing 
in  platoons.  Five  horses  were  shot  under 
Braddock  in  quick  succession,  and  finally 
a  bullet  pierced  his  lungs,  and  he  fell. 
After  that  event  the  army  broke  in  con- 
fusion and  fled.  Sixty-three  officers  out 
of  eighty-five  were  either  killed  or 
wounded,  and  out  of  thirteen  hundred 
men  engaged,  five  hundred  were  killed  or 
wounded.  During  the  fight  Washington 
did  his  utmost  to  carry  out  the  plans  of 
General  Braddock.  With  furious  energy 
and  courage  he  threw  himself  into  the 
midst  of  the  slaughter.  Three  horses 
were  shot  under  him,  and  his  clothes  were 
cut  in  many  places  by  bullets.  By  his 
skillful  management  of  the  Virginia  forces 


144          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

he  saved  what  was  left  of  the  shattered 
army. 

Aided  by  some  of  the  officers,  Wash- 
ington carried  Braddock  to  a  place  of 
safety,  and  watched  with  his  wounded 
general  until  he  died  four  days  afterward. 
They  buried  the  body  near  the  scene  of 
the  encounter.  The  chaplain  being 
wounded,  Washington  read  the  funeral 
service  over  his  grave.  The  spot  selected 
for  the  burial  was  in  the  roadway  of  the 
wilderness,  where  the  wagons  would  ob- 
literate every  trace,  thus  preventing  its 
discovery  by  the  savage  foes.  After  this 
sad  ceremony,  Washington  turned  his 
face  homeward,  arriving  at  Mount  Ver- 
n on  July  26th. 


IX. 

MARRIAGE  AND  MOUNT  VERNON. 


B 


RADDOCK'S  defeat  was  an  evil 
omen  to  the  frontier  settlements  of 
Virginia.  Savage  Indians  were  now 
likely  to  press  forward  into  the  settle- 
ments, doing  dreadful  work  with  fire  and 
tomahawk.  With  a  few  hundred  militia, 
Virginia  must  protect  her  three  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  of  frontier  from  the  incur- 
sions of  these  savages.  Washington  was 
called  to  this  task,  and  appointed  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  Virginia  forces.  It 
was  a  trying  service,  freighted  with  hard- 
ships and'  discouragements.  Raising 
money  by  personal  appeal,  enlisting  men 
through  recreant  recruiting  officers,  and 
enforcing  discipline  among  ignorant  and 

10  145 


146          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

trouble-making  men — these  were  some  of 
the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  in  the 
undertaking.  He  complains  to  the  gov- 
ernor: "No  order  is  obeyed  but  such  as  a 
party  of  soldiers  or  my  own  drawn  sword 
enforces."  In  the  midst  of  these  draw- 
backs, he  went  on  with  coolness  and  cour- 
age doing  his  duty — "making  an  empty 
bag  stand  upright,"  which  Franklin  says 
is  "hard." 

The  question  of  rank  between  king's 
and  provincial  officers  was  still  a  bone  of 
contention.  At  Fort  Cumberland  there 
was  a  little  fellow  by  the  name  of  Dag- 
worth,  who,  having  held  a  king's  com- 
mission, refused  to  obey  Washington. 
This  disagreement  as  to  official  rank  re- 
sulted in  a  quarrel  between  Virginia  and 
Maryland.  Washington  now  determined 
to  have  this  matter  settled,  and  early  in 
1756  he  set  out  for  Boston  on  horseback. 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.     147 

The  purpose  of  this  journey  was  an  inter- 
view with  Governor  Shirley,  who  was  the 
English  commander-in-chief  since  the 
death  of  General  Braddock.  Washing- 
ton's desire  was  to  obtain  a  king's  com- 
mission as  an  officer  in  the  army.  In  this 
he  failed.  Governor  Shirley,  however, 
gave  him  a  written  letter,  stating  that 
each  provincial  officer  must  obey  his  su- 
perior in  rank,  even  if  that  superior  were 
commissioned  by  another  Colony. 

Washington  certainly  intended  to  se- 
cure respect  by  the  dignity  of  his  personal 
appearance  on  this  seven-weeks'  trip. 
He  was  mounted  upon  one  of  his  best 
horses,  his  person  was  adorned  with  the 
buff  and  blue  uniform,  a  scarlet  and  white 
cape  was  thrown  over  his  shoulders,  and 
a  gold-mounted  sword  swung  at  his  side. 
The  trappings  of  his  horse  bore  the  Wash- 
ington arms,  in  the  style  of  the  best 


148          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

don  saddlers.  He  was  attended  by  two 
aides  dressed  in  full  uniform,  and  two 
servants  clad  in  white  and  scarlet  livery. 
The  handsome,  young  colonel,  thus  at- 
tended, must  have  attracted  the  admiring 
attention  of  the  people  dwelling  in  the 
Colonial  towns  and  rural  districts  through 
which  he  rode. 

One  of  the  marked  traits  in  Washing- 
ton's character  was  his  fondness  for  fine 
clothes.  He  was  punctilious  in  his  atten- 
tion to  fashionable  garments.  Wherever 
he  chanced  to  abide,  the  laundress  and 
barber  were  in  great  demand.  The  barber 
found  employment  simply  as  a  hair- 
dresser, for  Washington  either  shaved 
himself  or  placed  his  person  in  the  hands 
of  his  valet  for  that  service.  It  must  not, 
however,  be  understood  that  there  was 
any  of  the  dandy  about  Washington.  Far 
from  that.  He  selected  and  wore  his 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.     149 

clothes  on  principle.  He  was  a  great  ob- 
server of  facts,  and  it  is  a  fact  that  a  man 
carries  about  with  him  a  superior  degree 
of  self-respect  and  wins  a  great  measure 
of  respect  from  others  by  being  well 
dressed.  It  is  an  old  saying  that  good 
clothes  have  much  to  do  with  courtship. 
Washington  believed,  other  things  being 
equal,  that  good  clothes  went  a  great  way 
in  accomplishing  one's  purposes  in  deal- 
ing with  one's  fellow-men. 

On  his  return  journey  he  stopped  in 
New  York,  and  received  marked  social 
attention  from  the  original  "Four  Hun- 
dred." He  seems  never  to  have  taken  to 
New  England,  making  no  mention  of  Ply- 
mouth Rock  or  the  Pilgrims.  He  did, 
however,  attend  the  meeting  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court  held  in  the  Old  State  House. 
He  does  better  by  New  York,  bestowing 
upon  one  of  her  fair  daughters  a  deathless 


150          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

memory  through  association  with  his 
name.  During  the  round  of  social  festivi- 
ties given  in  his  honor  by  the  leaders  of 
Knickerbocker  society,  his  heart  was  cap- 
tured, for  the  time,  by  Miss  Mary  Philipse, 
a  young  woman  of  great  beauty  and  much 
wealth.  Serious  matters  on  the  Virginia 
frontier  demanded  his  presence,  and  he 
pressed  hastily  homeward,  leaving  the 
New  York  beauty  to  be  won  and  wedded 
by  Captain  Morris,  one  of  his  fellow  aides 
on  Braddock's  staff. 

For  three  years  Washington  had  a  try- 
ing position  at  the  head  of  the  Virginia 
militia.  In  1758  an  overturn  in  the  Eng- 
lish ministry  brought  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment into  the  hands  of  the  great  states- 
man, William  Pitt.  One  of  the  Prime 
Minister's  first  acts  in  Virginia  was  to  re- 
call Governor  Dimviddie.  This  circum- 
stance, in  its  effect  upon  George  Washing- 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.     151 

ton,  was  like  a  breeze  of  fresh  mountain 
air  coming  into  a  ballroom.  The  new 
ministry  set  in  motion  a  greater  scheme, 
manned  by  abler  men,  to  attack  the 
French  in  their  American  strongholds. 
Another  expedition  was  set  in  motion 
against  Fort  Duquesne  under  General 
Forbes.  Washington  was  at  the  head  of 
one  of  the  Virginia  regiments,  still  hold- 
ing his  commission  as  commander-in- 
chief  of  Virginia  militia.  Pitt's  policy 
had  broken  the  power  of  the  French  in 
the  North,  and  the  French  occupants  of 
Fort  Duquesne  had  withdrawn  to  meet  a 
need  elsewhere,  burning  the  fort  upon 
leaving.  All  that  remained  for  the  Vir- 
ginia expedition  to  do  was  to  take  pos- 
session. They  erected  a  new  fort,  and 
raised  over  it  the  English  flag,  renaming 
the  spot  Fort  Pitt. 

The  English  were  now  in  possession  of 


152  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

the  Valley  of  the  Ohio.  Washington  led 
his  regiment  back  to  Winchester,  resigned 
his  commission,  and  returned  to  Mount 
Vernon.  This  was  in  the  latter  part  of 
December,  1758,  and  from  that  time  until 
June  15,  1775,  when  the  war-drums  of  the 
Revolution  called  him  to  a  mighty  task, 
Washington  had  no  direct  connection 
with  military  affairs. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  last  campaign 
against  the  French  at  Fort  Duquesne 
there  was  an  order  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Washington  by  the  quartermaster-gen- 
eral of  the  British  army,  instructing  him 
to  ride  posthaste  from  Winchester  to 
Williamsburg,  and  present  before  the  gov- 
ernor and  Council  the  humiliating  con- 
dition of  the  Virginia  troops  as  to  their 
clothing  and  equipments.  In  the  latter 
part  of  May,  1758,  Washington  and  Billy 
Bishop,  General  Braddock's  esteemed 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.     153 

servant,  set  out  on  horseback  for  this 
journey.  It  was  in  Virginia  springtide, 
and  even  the  war-god  must  stand  uncov- 
ered in  the  presence  of  his  sweet  sister, 
the  love-goddess,  in  such  rare  days. 

"In  the  spring  a  livelier  iris  changes  on  the  bur- 
nished dove; 

In  the  spring  a  young  man's  fancy  lightly  turns 
to  thoughts  of  love." 

No  man  was  ever  more  cautious  in 
avoiding  covert  attacks  than  George 
Washington,  and  no  victim  ever  rode 
more  unconsciously  into  ambush  than  did 
this  same  George  Washington  that  May- 
day about  the  hour  of  noon.  The  two 
horsemen  had  made  their  way  through 
the  country,  passing  the  large  estates  and 
hospitable  homes  of  the  Virginia  planters, 
and  had  arrived  at  a  point  on  the  Pamun- 
key  River  called  Williams  Ferry.  Tra- 
dition says  Washington  was  riding  a 


154          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

splendid  chestnut-brown  horse,  once 
owned  by  General  Braddock.  Scarcely 
had  the  ferry-boat  touched  the  opposite 
shore  when  Major  Chamberlayne,  the 
hospitable  proprietor  of  the  grounds,  rec- 
ognized Washington,  and  insisted  that  he 
should  come  to  his  home  and  dine  with 
him.  Colonel  Washington  declined  the 
invitation,  stating  that  he  was  the. bearer 
of  an  important  military  message  to  the 
governor  at  Williamsburg.  His  friend 
pressed  the  invitation,  saying  that  they 
were  within  a  few  hours'  ride  of  the  capi- 
tal, and  a  good  dinner  would  give  zest  to 
the  remainder  of  their  journey,  closing 
his  appeal  with  the  assertion  that  there 
was  a  charming,  young  widow  now  visit- 
ing his  home,  whose  company  Washing- 
ton would  find  entertaining.  Virginia 
gallantry  could  no  longer  resist.  Wash- 
ington accepted  the  invitation,  on  the  con- 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.     155 

dition  that  after  dinner  his  host*  would  let 
him  depart  immediately.  The  charming 
woman  proved  to  be  Martha  Dandridge, 
the  widow  of  Daniel  Park  Custis,  a  gra- 
cious, intelligent,  beautiful,  and  wealthy 
lady,  living  in  a  stately  mansion  near  by, 
called  the  White  House.  She  had  married 
Mr.  Custis  when  she  was  seventeen  years 
of  age,  he  being  more  than  twenty  years 
her  senior.  At  the  time  of  this  meeting 
with  Washington  she  was  twenty-six 
years  of  age,  his  junior  by  three  months, 
the  mother  of  two  children,  a  boy  of  six 
and  a  girl  of  four  years.  She  had  been  one 
year  a  widow. 

So  much  for  background.  The  filling 
up  of  the  foreground  is  alike  interesting. 
Washington  dismounted  before  the  door 
of  Major  Chamberlayne's  mansion,  plac- 
ing his  horse  under  Bishop's  care,  strictly 
charging  him  to  be  ready  for  their  further 


156          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

journey  immediately  after  dinner.  We 
will  not  stop  over  introductions  and  what 
took  place  during  the  pleasant  hour  at  the 
table.  Dinner  over,  the  faithful  Bishop 
was  promptly  on  time  with  the  horses, 
but  Colonel  Washington  did  not  appear. 
Billy  Bishop  is  a  little  nervous,  and  leads 
the  horses  up  and  down  the  green  before 
the  house,  looking  now  and  then  askant 
at  the  windows,  as  if  he  would  remind  his 
master  that  time  was  up.  Half  the  after- 
noon passes,  and  Washington  still  lingers 
within.  "For  once  Washington  loitered 
in  the  path  of  duty."  We  have  uttered  all 
that  can  be  said  of  the  impression  Martha 
Custis  made  upon  George  Washington, 
when  we  state  that  the  remainder  of  the 
day  was  spent  in  her  company.  It  was 
sunset  before  he  arose  to  depart,  when 
Major  Chamberlayne  entered  his  protest 
by  saying,  "No  guest  ever  leaves  my 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.    157 

house  after  sunset."  There  is  no  record 
of  Washington  uttering  a  word  of  com- 
plaint. He  ordered  Bishop  to  put  the 
horses  back  into  the  stable,  and  the  night 
was  spent  in  the  house  of  his  host.  Those 
who  ought  to  know  say  that  the  fair 
widow  and  the  handsome  colonel  lingered 
"after  the  other  guests  had  retired." 

"A  ruddy  drop  of  manly  blood 
The  surging  sea  outweighs ; 
The  world  uncertain  comes  and  goes, 
The  lover  rooted  stays." 

The  next  morning  the  sun  was  well  up 
towards  the  zenith  before  he  was  in  the 
saddle  on  his  way  to  Williamsburg. 

With  soldier-like  promptness  Wash- 
ington pressed  his  suit.  On  his  return  to 
the  frontier,  he  stopped  at  the  White 
House,  obtained  an  interview  with  the 
mistress,  and,  before  they  parted,  Martha 
Custis  had  promised  George  Washington 


158          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

to  become  his  wife.  They  were  married 
January  6,  1759.  All  the  world  knows 
about  that  marriage.  She  satisfied  Wash- 
ington. She  was  the  true  mistress  of  his 
heart  till  the  day  of  his  death.  During 
his  life  he  wore  a  miniature  portrait  of 
his  wife  hung  from  his  neck  by  a  golden 
chain.  In  his  letters  he  calls  her  "My 
dear  Patsy."  In  after  years,  when  the 
storm  of  battle  roared  about  him,  he  spoke 
'  of  her  as  "the  partner  of  all  my  domestic 
enjoyments."  His  happiest  days  were 
spent  with  her  amid  the  home  scenes  of 
Mount  Vernon. 

Soon  after  his  marriage,  Washington 
took  his  wife  to  Mount  Vernon,  where  he 
set  up  housekeeping  in  a  style  commen- 
surate with  his  social  standing.  He  turned 
his  back  upon  war,  but  with  the  true  in- 
stinct of  a  Virginian  set  his  face  towajds 
politics. 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.    159 

Six  months  before  his  marriage  he  had 
been  elected  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Burgesses  from  Frederick  County.  His 
services  here  were  so  satisfactory  to  his 
constituency  that  he  held  this  position  for 
fifteen  years,  receiving  each  year  a  large 
majority  of  the  votes  cast.  Upon  taking 
his  seat  in  the  House  for  the  first  time, 
he  received  a  hearty  welcome,  the  Speaker 
making  an  address  in  which  he  presented 
to  Washington  the  thanks  of  the  House 
in  honor  of  his  military  service.  The  sen- 
timent was  greeted  with  hearty  applause 
from  all  present.  The  well-built  colonel, 
measuring  six  feet  in  height,  rose  to  re- 
spond. That  was  all  he  could  do  for  that 
occasion.  He  was  so  confused  that  he 
simply  stood  there,  blushing,  and  stam- 
mering, unable  to  utter  an  intelligent 
sentence.  It  took  the  House,  however, 
better  than  any  speech  he  might  have 


160          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

made.  The  Speaker  came  to  his  rescue 
in  the  famous  words:  "Sit  down,  Mr. 
Washington;  your  modesty  equals  your 
valor,  and  that  surpasses  the  power  of  any 
language  I  possess." 

Washington's  effective  service  was  not 
in  the  line  of  speech-making;  his  worth 
was  shown  in  sound  judgment,  careful 
study  of  facts,  wonderful  organizing  skill, 
and  spotless  integrity.  The  source  of 
Washington's  masterly  power  in  reading 
character  and  managing  men  has  often 
been  placed  to  the  credit  of  a  peculiar 
genius  possessed  by  him  for  such  work. 
The  source  of  that  power  lies  in  another 
direction.  It  is  revealed  in  his  method 
of  systematic  work,  in  his  habits  of  care- 
ful observation,  and  his  wide  range  of  ex- 
perience. Early  in  life  he  was  for  years 
thrown  in  contact  with  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men,  from  the  cultured  circle  of 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.     161 

Belvoir  to  the  simple,  rough  life  of  the 
frontier.  In  the  vigor  of  manhood  he 
spent  fifteen  years  in  the  study  and  man- 
agement of  men  in  the  Virginia  House  of 
Burgesses.  These  experiences  were  not 
wasted  on  a  man  like  Washington. 

Here  is  a  side-light  showing  his  keen- 
ness of  observation  in  some  advice  he 
gave  to  a  nephew,  who  was  about  to  take 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Burgesses:  "The 
only  advice  I  will  offer,"  he  said,  "if  you 
have  a  mind  to  command  the  attention  of 
the  House,  is  to  speak  seldom  but  on  im- 
portant subjects,  except  such  as  particu- 
larly relate  to  your  constituents;  and,  in 
the  former  case,  make  yourself  perfect 
master  of  the  subject.  Never  exceed  a 
decent  warmth,  and  submit  your  senti- 
ments with  diffidence.  A  dictatorial  style, 
though  it  may  carry  conviction,  is  always 
accompanied  with  disgust."' 


ii 


1 62          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

During  the  period  between  1759,  the 
year  of  his  marriage,  and  1775,  when  he 
took  command  of  the  Continental  army, 
\Yashington  lived  the  life  of  a  Virginia 
planter  at  Mount  Vernon.  These  were 
his  happiest  years.  This  charming  spot 
on  the  Potomac  River  was  the  goal  of  his 
earthly  pleasure.  There  he  held  close 
companionship  with  agricultural  life. 
Growing  crops  fascinated  him.  Late  in 
life  he  wrote  to  a  friend:  "I  think,  with 
you,  that  the  life  of  a  husbandman,  of  all 
others,  is  the  most  delectable.  It  is  hon- 
orable, it  is  amusing,  and,  with  judicious 
management,  is  profitable.  To  see  plants 
rise  from  the  earth  and  flourish  by  the 
superior  skill  and  bounty  of  labor,  fills  a 
contemplative  mind  with  ideas  which  are 
more  easy  to  be  conceived  than  ex- 
pressed." He  loved  horses,  cattle,  and 
dogs,  and  stocked  his  farms  with  the  finest 


MARRIAGE  AND  Mr.  VERNON.     163 

breeds.  His  business  enterprises  gener- 
ally brought  good  returns;  and  barrels  of 
flour  and  bales  of  tobacco,  bearing  the 
brand  of  "Geo.  Washington,"  passed  the 
custom-house  officers  unchallenged. 

He  was  the  master  of  Mount  Vernon 
for  forty-six  years.  During  that  period, 
twenty-three  years  were  given  to  public 
service.  Speaking  of  the  losses  on  his 
farms,  occasioned  by  his  absence  during 
the  Revolution,  he  says:  "To  speak  within 
bounds,  ten  thousand  pounds  will  not 
compensate  the  losses  I  might  have 
avoided  by  being  at  home  and  attending 
to  my  own  concerns."  For  his  service 
to  the  cause  of  liberty  during  the  Revolu- 
tion the  ideal  patriot  declined  any  remu- 
neration, requesting  only  the  amount  of 
his  personal  expenses. 

Of  all  shrines  sacred  to  the  memory  of 
Washington,  Mount  Vernon  is  the  most 


164          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

suggestive.  Other  places  renowned  for 
his  presence  remind  one  of  the  hero,  the 
warrior,  the  statesman — Mount  Vernon 
suggests  the  man.  Surrounded  by  those 
scenes,  he  played  as  a  child.  Back  to 
those  halls  he  came  from  his  surveying 
trips.  Through  that  doorway  he  led  his 
bride.  From  that  loved  home  he  went 
forth  with  drawn  sword  in  the  cause  of 
liberty.  To  its  tranquil  scenes  he  returned 
when  the  storm  of  war  had  passed,  and  his 
labors  as  President  were  over.  The  vis- 
itor to  Mount  Vernon  feels  the  power  of 

these  memories.    The  whole  place  has  an 

• 

expectant  look,  as  if  the  owner  were  only 
absent  for  a  little  while,  and  would  re- 
turn. 


CHAPTER  X. 
STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST. 

FROM   the  period  of  Washington's 
entrance  into  public  life  to  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Stamp  Act  in   1765,  in 
private  thought  and  public  action  he  was 
a  loyal  subject  of  the  English  king.     He 
had  grown  up  with  a  supreme  respect  for 
authority  and  a  zealous  regard  for  law, 
having  no  sympathy  with  radical  enthu- 
siasts whose  zeal  carried  away  their  judg- 
ment. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  French  war, 
the  Mother  Country  had  adopted  a  policy 
in  relation  to  Colonial  affairs  which  sa- 
vored much  of  oppression.  Briefly  stated, 
the  policy  was  this:  The  American  Colo- 
nies were  to  be  a  part  of  the  great  British 

165 


1 66          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Empire  so  far  as  taxation  and  dependence 
went,  but  were  to  have  no  representatives 
in  Parliament,  and  no  share  in  legislation 
affecting  them.  The  thoughtful  leaders  in 
Colonial  politics  looked  upon  this  meas- 
ure with  serious  apprehension.  It  was 
equivalent  to  the  cry  from  the  ship's  look- 
out, "Breakers  ahead." 

The  suspicious  feeling  on  the  part  of 
the  Colonies  towards  the  authorities  in 
England  began  to  manifest  itself  very 
early  in  their  relations  with  each  other. 
The  Colonial  governors,  generally  speak- 
ing, were  men  who  helped  on  the  spirit 
of  antagonism  by  their  official  arrogance. 
There  was  a  constant  warfare  waged  be- 
tween them  and  their  Assemblies,  and  this 
chronic  opposition,  coupled  with  later  acts 
of  injustice  on  the  part  of  the  English 
ministry,  rapidly  developed  in  America  a 


STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    167 

public  opinion  looking  towards  independ- 
ence. 

Washington  came  thoughtfully  and 
gradually  under  this  influence.  He  loved 
his  country  with  a  patriot's  devotion,  and 
loathed  injustice  in  his  manly  soul.  He 
was  forced  to  witness  the  object  of  his 
love  treated  with  kingly  oppression  and 
the  manhood  of  his  fellow-citizens  de- 
graded. His  first  efforts  to  repair  the  in- 
jury were  by  way  of  remonstrance  and 
compromise.  But  _  when  all  such  pro- 
posals were  met  with  disdain  and  refusal 
on  the  part  of  the  English  Government, 
he  took  the  heroic  stand  and  followed  his 
duty  home,  boldly  declaring:  "Our  lordly 
masters  in  Great  Britain  will  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  less  than  the  deprivation  of 
American  freedom.  Something  should  be 
done  to  maintain  the  liberty  which  we 


1 68          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

have  derived  from  our  ancestors.  No 
man  should  hesitate  a  moment  to  use  arms 
in  defense  of  so  valuable  a  blessing,  yet 
arms  should  be  the  last  resource." 

If  the  demon  of  discord  had  been  in- 
vited to  preside  over  the  deliberations  of 
the  English  ministry  at  this  period,  he 
could  not  have  suggested  a  policy  more 
detrimental  to  the  peace  of  the  American 
Colonies  than  that  adopted  by  King 
George  and  his  counselors.  Space  forbids 
the  enumeration  and  historic  connection 
of  America's  grievances  during  the  period 
previous  to  the  Revolution.  Some  of 
them,  however,  may  be  set  forth  in  skele- 
ton form. 

During  the  French  war,  Colonial  paper 
money  had  been  issued  by  the  Colonies, 
in  order  to  meet  the  financial  pressure 
incident  to  the  campaign.  Scarcely  had 
hostilities  ceased  when  the  English  Board 


STIRLING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    169 

of  Trade  obtained  an  order  from  the  Eng- 
lish ministry  declaring  this  paper  money 
to  be  "no  longer  legal  tender."  This  was 
the  first  blow  from  the  millionaire  fist  ever 
giyen  against  the  rights  of  the  common 
people  of  America.  It  shocked  Washing- 
ton's sense  of  justice,  calling  from  him  the 
remark:  "I  fear  this  order  will  set  the 
whole  country  in  flames." 

In  1761,  English  authority  set  itself  in 
motion  further  to  hector  the  Colonies  by 
the  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Act. 
This  act  required  all  trade  with  the  Colo- 
nies to  be  carried  on  through  home  ports, 
in  British  vessels.  Sugar  from  the  West 
Indies  consigned  to  dealers  in  Maryland 
must  first  be  shipped  in  English  bottoms 
to  some  English  port,  and  thence  to  the 
James  or  Potomac  Rivers.  Under  such 
arbitrary  measures,  smuggling  became  a 
common  practice.  A  Boston  revenue  offi- 


170          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

cer  made  application  to  the  court  for  a 
"writ,  of  assistance;"  in  other  words,  a 
general  search  warrant,  permitting  him  to 
enter  private  houses,  and  search  for  smug- 
gled goods.  James  Otis  threw  himself 
into  the  task  of  defeating  this  application 
before  the  court.  In  his  appeal  he  used 
the  famous  sentence:  "Arbitrary  measures 
of  this  kind  have  cost  one  king  of  Eng- 
land his  head,  a  second  his  crown,  and 
they  may  yet  cost  a  third  his  most  flour- 
ishing Colonies."  James  Otis  lost  his  case 
before  the  court,  but  his  speech  created 
such  excitement  and  enthusiasm  among 
those  present,  that  the  scene  has  been  re- 
garded as  the  opening  act  of  the  American 
Revolution. 

Early  in  1765  American  indignation 
was  kindled  into  flame  by  the  passing  of 
the  celebrated  Stamp  Act  by  the  British 
Government.  This  act  required  the 


STIRRING  THE  EA&LE'S  NEST.    171 

American  Colonies  to  place  a  revenue 
stamp  upon  every  newspaper  or  almanac 
published.  They  were  also  required  upon 
all  marriage  certificates,"  wills,  deeds,  and 
other  legal  papers.  These  stamps  varied 
in  price  from  three  pence  to  ten  pounds. 
They  were  to  be  sold  by  officers  duly  ap- 
pointed by  British  authority,  and  the 
money  received  used  to  pay  British  sol- 
diers stationed  in  America  to  enforce  the 
laws  made  by  the  English  Parliament. 
.This  act  produced  a  general  uprising 
among  the  Colonists  from  Massachusetts 
to  Georgia.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the 
first  protest  coming  from  a  representative 
body  in  America  had  its  origin  in  Vir- 
ginia, the  Colony  hitherto  most  loyal  to 
the  crown.  Secret  societies  known  as  the 
"Sons  of  Liberty"  were  formed  in  most  of 
the  Colonies,  whose  members  were  under 
secret  oath  to  resist  the  oppressive  law. 


1 72          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Stamp  officers  were  burned  in  effigy,  and 
the  boxes  containing  the  stamps  were 
burned  or  cast  into  the  sea.  It  was  evi- 
dent the  Stamp  Act  could  not  be  enforced 
in  America,  and  the  English  Government, 
after  prolonged  debate,  repealed  the  law, 
still  insisting  upon  the  right  to  tax  the 
Colonies.  Speaking  of  this  Act  after  its 
repeal,  Washington  said:  "The  conse- 
quence would  have  been  more  direful  than 
is  generally  apprehended,  both  to  the 
Mother  Country  and  the  Colonies." 

The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  amounted 
to  nothing  so  far  as  .the  principle  at  stake 
was  involved,  for  it  was  saddled  with  a 
rider,  reasserting  the  right  of  Parliament 
to  impose  taxes  on  the  Colonies.  It  was 
much  like  scraping  the  coat  from  the 
tongue  of  a  fever  patient,  with  the  hope 
of  thus  curing  him  of  disease.  England's 
contention  in  the  matter  of  Colonial  tax- 


STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    173 

ation  was  an  affair  of  the  pocket-book. 
America's  resistance  was  rooted  in  the 
principle  of  justice. 

Soon  after  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act, 
the  British  Ministry  ordered  a  duty  to  be 
placed  on  certain  articles  shipped  to 
America.  This  was  described  as  an  in- 
direct tax,  and  it  was  taken  for  granted 
that  the  Americans  would  submit  to  it, 
for  some  such  intimation  had  been  made 
in  the  debate  on  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act.  It  was  evident  from  this  action  that 
the  snake  had  been  scotched  and  not 
killed.  The  Colonies  responded  to  the 
order  by  boycotting  the  articles  men- 
tioned, and  Washington  in  his  orders  for 
English  goods  for  Mount  Vernon  care- 
fully avoided  sending  for  articles  specified 
in  the  tariff  list.  This  action  touched  the 
commerce  of  the  Mother  Country,  and 
that  has  always  been  a  sensitive  nerve  in 


174          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

British  national  life.  The  import  duties 
were  soon  repealed  on  all  goods  shipped 
to  America,  with  the  exception  of  the  duty 
on  tea.  This  exception  was  made  on  the 
ground  that  a  tea  tax  would  be  the  least 
objectionable  to  the  Colonies,  because  it 
touched  fewer  people,  and  at  the  same 
time  would  maintain  the  right  of  Parlia- 
ment to  tax  the  Colonies;  that  is  to  say, 
the  insignificance  of  the  tax  on  tea  would 
protect  it  from  opposition.  It  is  said  that 
tea  was  so  little  known  among  the  Colo- 
nies at  this  time  that  when  a  Virginia 
gentleman  gave  his  overseer  a  pound  of 
the  delicious  shrub  as  a  present  to  his  wife, 
she,  thinking  it  was  some  new-fashioned 
greens,  boiled  the  whole  of  it  in  a  pot  with 
a  big  ham. 

The  Colonists,  however,  were  not 
caught  napping.  American  patriotism 
did  not  lose  sight  of  the  principle  in- 


STICKING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    175 

volved,  and  declared  its  defiant  opposition 
in  words  that  could  not  be  misunder- 
stood— "The  right  to  take  one  pound  im- 
plied the  right  to  take  a  thousand." 

Protests  were  unavailing,  and  in  1773 
vessels  loaded  with  tea  by  the  East  India 
Company  were  sent  to  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  Charleston.  The  pres- 
ence of  these  ships  in  American  waters 
produced  among  the  people  an  outburst 
of  indignation  destined  to  shake  the  con- 
tinent. Everywhere  the  question  of  land- 
ing these  cargoes  of  tea  was  met  with 
an  emphatic  No!  In  Charleston,  the  only 
place  where  a  ship  discharged  her  cargo, 
the  tea  was  stored  in  a  damp  cellar  and 
spoiled.  In  Boston  more  heroic  measures 
were  adopted.  Mass-meetings,  attended 
by  thousands  of  citizens,  were  held  in  Fan- 
euil  Hall  and  the  Old  South  meeting- 
house. Samuel  Adams  rocked  the  cradle 


176          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

of  Liberty  to  the  tune  of  an  intense  pa- 
triotism. A  letter  from  the  patriots  of 
Philadephia  exhorted  the  men  of  Boston 
to  stand  firm,  saying,  "Our  only  fear  is 
lest  you  may  shrink.  May  God  give  you 
virtue  enough  to  save  the  liberties  of  your 
country!" 

In  one  of  these  mass-meetings,  held  in 
the  Old  South  Church,  John  Rowe  stood 
up,  and  said:  "Who  knows  how  tea  will 
mingle  with  salt  water?"  The  remark  was 
greeted  with  great  applause.  The  patriots 
had  exhausted  all  legal  methods  and  used 
their  wisest  words  of  petition  to  prevent 
the  landing  of  the  tea.  Governor  Hutch- 
inson  sent  his  last  word  of  refusal  to  the 
meeting.  Samuel  Adams  then  arose,  and 
quietly  but  distinctly  said:  "This  meeting 
can  do  nothing  more  to  save  the  country." 
Soon  afterwards  a  war-whoop  was  heard 
outside  the  church,  and  fifty  stalwart  citi- 


STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    177 

zens  of  Boston  dressed  as  Mohawk  In- 
dians marched  down  to  the  wharf,  boarded 
the  three  tea-ships,  broke  open  three  hun- 
dred and  forty-two  chests  of  tea,  and  flung 
their  contents  into  Boston  Harbor.  The 
next  morning  Dorchester  Beach  was 
fringed  with  salted  tea,  carried  there  by 
wind  and  tide  during  the  ni^ht.  It  was 
a  costly  trimming  with  which  Boston 
adorned  the  shore  of  her  picturesque 
suburb. 

The  "Tea  Party"  cost  the  East  India 
Company  much;  it  was  yet  to  cost  Boston 
more.  England  demanded  compensation 
for  the  destruction  of  the  tea;  Boston  re- 
fused, although  Benjamin  Franklin,  writ- 
ing from  London,  suggested  payment. 
The  answer  was  promptly  returned, 
"Do  n't  pay  for  an  ounce." 

General  Gage  was  ordered  to  Boston 
with  four  regiments  of  British  regulars, 

12 


178          GEORGE  WASHINGTON: 

who  closed  her  port  and  ruined  her  com- 
merce. Her  distress  met  with  universal 
sympathy  in  the  Colonies.  Most  of  the 
Assemblies  held  meetings,  and  voted  that 
Boston  was  "suffering  in  the  common 
cause."  Droves  of  cattle  and  sheep  were 
being  driven  from  all  directions  to  the  re- 
lief of  the  cjty.  Gifts  of  clothing,  food, 
and  money,  carried  by  ox-carts  and  farm 
wagons,  were  brought  to  the  martyr  town. 
Heading  a  subscription  list  for  the  pur- 
pose of  feeding  the  unemployed  working 
classes  of  the  town  was  the  name  of 
George  Washington,  with  a  gift  of  fifty 
pounds. 

In  the  Virginia  Convention,  called  to 
select  delegates  to  the  first  Continental 
Congress,  Washington  was  chosen  as  one 
of  their  representatives.  He  there  uttered 
some  words  which  Mr.  Lynch  declared 
to  be  "the  most  eloquent  speech  that  ever 


STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    179 

was  made."  Speaking  of  the  distressing 
oppression  of  Boston,  he  said:  "I  will  raise 
a  thousand  men,  subsist  them  at  my  own 
expense,  and  march  them  to  the  relief  of 
Boston."  When  George  Washington, 
"the  silent  man,"  had  anything  to  say,  he 
said  it  so  that  men  understood  his  mean- 
ing- 
England  had  so  heartlessly  stirred  the 
eagle's  nest  in  America  that  the  young 
Colonial  birds  could  stand  it  no  longer, 
but  took  wing  and  soared  to  independ- 
ence. Mother  England  intended  other  re- 
sults to  come  out  of  this  treatment,  but 
Divine  Providence  used  her  folly  to  ac- 
complish the  very  end  she  sought  to  pre- 
vent. 

A  Continental  Congress,  made  up  of 
representatives  from  all  of  the  Colonies, 
was  first  proposed  by  the  Sons  of  Liberty 
in  New  York.  This  proposition  was  ac- 


i8o          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

cepted  by  the  Colonies,  and  on  the  5th 
day  of  September,  1774,  the  first  Conti- 
nental Congress  met  in  Carpenters'  Hall 
in  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  Washington 
was  one  of  the  seven  delegates  from  Vir- 
ginia, his  name  standing  third  on  the  list. 
This  was  the  first  time  the  representative 
men  of  the  Colonies  had  ever  met  face  to 
face  in  convention.  Washington  said  little 
in  this  Congress,  but  spent  much  time  in 
studying  the  men,  getting  at  their  ideas 
and  purposes  through  conversation  and 
friendly  visits.  This  Congress  sat  for  fifty- 
one  days,  occupying  the  time  in  debating 
and  discussing  the  vital  questions  pertain- 
ing to  American  affairs.  In  speaking  of 
the  personnel  of  this  body,  Patrick  Henry 
said:  "If  you  speak  of  solid  information 
and  sound  judgment,  Colonel  Washing- 
ton is  unquestionably  the  greatest  man  on 
the  floor." 


STIRRING  %THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    181 

The  second  Continental  Congress  met 
at  Philadelphia,  May  10,  1775.  War- 
clouds  were  now  in  the  sky.  Washington 
came  to  this  Congress  wearing  the  blue- 
and-buff  uniform  of  a  Virginia  colonel. 
What  his  purpose  was  in  appearing  on  the 
floor  of  Congress  clad  in  military  garb  no 
one  knows.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
it  was  his  way  of  saying  the  hour  for  fight- 
ing had  come:  "Like  the  war-paint  of  an 
Indian,  his  soldierly  dress  was  a  figure  of 
speech,  to  tell  that  the  time  for  compro- 
mise had  passed  by,  and  the  question  must 
be  settled,  not  by  words,  but  by  blows." 
The  battle  of  Lexington  had  been  fought, 
and  an  army  of  sixteen  thousand  patriots 
had  gathered  in  Cambridge  for  the  de- 
fense of  Boston.  Congress  was  called 
upon  to  adopt  this  army,  and  select  a 
commander-in-chief  for  its  head.  The 
choice  of  a  commander  seemed  a  simple 


1 82          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

matter  to  John  Adams.  He  moved  that 
Congress  adopt  the  army  at  Cambridge, 
and  said  he  had  "but  one  gentleman  in 
mind,  a  gentleman  from  Virginia,  who 
was  among  us,  and  very  well  known  to 
all  of  us;  a  gentleman  whose  skill  and  ex- 
perience as  an  officer,  whose  independent 
fortune,  great  talents,  and  excellent  uni- 
versal character,  would  command  the  ap- 
probation of  all  America,  and  unite  the 
cordial  exertions  of  all  the  Colonies  better 
than  any  other  person  in  the  Union." 
Washington's  modesty  was  touched  by 
these  words,  and  before  Mr.  Adams  had 
finished  this  tribute,  he  quietly  arose  and 
left  the  room.  Silence  prevailed  in  the 
House  for  a  few  moments,  then  the  vote 
was  taken,  and  Washington  was  unani- 
mously elected  commander-in-chief  of  the 
Continental  army. 

On  June  19,  1775,  his  commission  was 


STIRRING  THE  EAGLE'S  NEST.    183 

0 

signed,  and  by  the  2ist  of  the  same  month 
he  was  on  his  way  to  Boston.  He  had 
ridden  but  twenty  miles  on  his  way  when 
a  horseman  met  him  bearing  the  news  of 
Bunker  Hill.  "Did  the  militia  fight?" 
was  his  first  question.  Receiving  the  de- 
cisive "Yes!"  he  exclaimed,  "Then  the 
liberties  of  the  country  are  safe,"  and  rode 
forward  to  one  of  the  greatest  tasks  ever 
imposed  on  mortal  man. 

"The  day  is  broke,  my  boys,  push  on! 
And  follow,  follow  Washington. 
'T  is  he  that  leads  the  way,  my  boys, 
'T  is  he  that  leads  the  way. 

When  he  commands,  we  will  obey, 
Through  fain  or  sun,  by  night  or  day, 
Determined  to  be  free,  my  boys, 
Determined  to  be  free." 

— Revolutionary  Sone. 


XI. 

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF    AND    PRESIDENT. 

WASHINGTON'S  ride  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Boston  during  those 
early  summer  days  of  1775  created 
a  profound  impression  among  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  country  through  which  he 
passed.  Enthusiastic  citizens  escorted 
him  from  one  town  to  another.  The 
nearer  he  came  to  New  England,  the  more 
earnest  he  found  the  people  in  their  pa- 
triotism. This  ride  was  a  telling  object- 
lesson  to  the  people  of  the  Colonies,  pro- 
claiming the  dignity  and  sterling  char- 
acter of  the  leaders  engaged  in  the  service 
of  liberty.  No  man,  after  seeing  that 
cavalcade,  escorting  the  great  Virginian 

to  his  post  of  duty,  could  speak  sneeringly 
184 


PRESIDENT.  185 

of  a  movement  led  by  such  men  as  George 
Washington. 

Washington's  mind  must  have  been 
occupied  with  serious  thoughts.  He  was 
on  his  way  to  take  charge  of  an  insurgent 
army.  There  were  some  terrible  examples 
of  the  failure  of  such  work  in  the  past. 
The  bloody  scenes  of  the  Jacobite  rebel- 
lion, from  1715  to  1744,  were  still  fresh 
in  the  English  mind,  and  the  memory  of 
Culloden  field,  where  the  courageous 
Highlanders  were  defeated  and  butchered 
by  the  regulars  of  the  British  army  was 
a  threatening  prophecy  of  what  English 
regulars  might  do  in  these  struggling 
Colonies,  beginning -in  Boston.  He  was 
to  draw  his  sword  against  the  strongest 
military  power  in  the  world.  He  was  to 
contend  against  a  nation  from  which  he 
had  inherited  his  own  fighting  blood. 
There  was  still  vitality  enough  in  tyranny 


1 86          GEORGE  WASHINGTON, 

to  strangle  the  cause  of  liberty  in  the  New 
World.  His  foe  possessed  the  advantage 
of  an  ancestral  aristocracy,  guarded  by  a 
titled  nobility.  A  pompous  State  relig- 
ion would  throw  its  mighty  influence 
across  his  path.  The  throne  of  despotism 
was  buttressed  by  the  wealth,  the  learn- 
ing, and  the  art  of  ages.  Men  of  genius 
stood  ready  to  do  the  bidding  of  royalty. 
And,  worst  of  all,  the  lacerated  form  of 
Liberty,  for  which  he  was  contending,  had 
been  branded  in  high  quarter  with  the 
crime  of  regicide.  Out  of  such  a  past, 
into  the  untried  future,  Washington 
looked  on  the  morning  of  July  3,  1775, 
when,  on  Cambridge  Common,  under  the 
"Old  Elm,"  he  placed  his  hand  on  the  hilt 
of  his  sword,  drew  it  from  the  scabbard, 
and  raised  it  in  the  presence  of  the  army 
and  the  people.  Such  a  venture  involved 
business  risk,  home  risk,  personal  risk; 


PRESIDENT.  187 

yea,  the  hazard  of  everything  but  self- 
respect;  yet  the  consciousness  of  devotion 
to  a  just  cause  led  him  to  count  life  itself 
as  nothing  compared  with  the  great  boon 
of  freedom,  for  which  he  was  now  con- 
tending. 

"  One  self-approving  hour  whole  worlds  outweighs 
Of  stupid  starers,  and  of  loud  huzzas, 
And  more  true  joy  Marcellus,  exiled,  feels 
Thau  Csesar  with  a  Senate  at  his  heels." 

It  should  be  noticed,  in  this  connec- 
tion, that  the  hectoring  injustice  on  the 
part  of  the  British  ministry,  which  threw 
the  American  Colonies  into  revolt,  was 
not  the  work  of  the  common  people  of 
England.  The  unreasonable  acts  of  Par- 
liament were  not  passed  without  vigorous 
opposition  on  the  part  of  some  of  Eng- 
land's most  sagacious  men.  The  world 
might  have  been  spared  the  American 
Revolution  had  not  the  English  Govern- 


1 88          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ment  been  practically  in  the  hands  of  two 
young  and  inexperienced  men — George 
III  and  his  prime  minister,  Lord  North. 
The  king  was  thirty-two  years  of  age, 
Lord  North  his  senior  by  five  years.  Lord 
North  was  simply  the  henchman  to  his 
sovereign,  and  this  young  representative 
of  the  House  of  Hanover  was  a  narrow- 
minded  ruler,  who  mistook  obstinacy  for 
heroism,  and  personal  whims  for  wise  po- 
litical policies.  A  little  sound  statesman- 
ship on  the  part  of  these  two  men  might 
have  prevented  the  appeal  to  arms. 

The  condition  of  the  provincial  troops 
before  Boston  sorely  tried  the  military 
spirit  of  Washington.  The  lack  of  disci- 
pline was  demoralizing.  Short  enlist- 
ments made  possible  the  reduction  of  the 
army  in  critical  times,  and  the  want  of 
ammunition  paralyzed  any  forward  move- 
ment in  the  way  of  attack.  He  patiently 


PRESIDENT.  189 

went  to  work  to  bring  order  out  of  this 
confusion.  He  had  experienced  many 
like  embarrassments  while  commanding 
Virginia  troops  in  the  days  of  the  French 
war;  but  he  had  hoped  to  find  more  public 
spirit  and  better  discipline  among  the 
New  England  levies.  In  his  confidential 
letters  he  does  not  mince  words  in  describ- 
ing the  state  of  affairs.  He  complains  of 
their  lack  of  effective  organization:  "The 
people  of  this  Government  have  obtained 
a  character  which  they  by  no  means  de- 
serve. Their  officers,  generally  speaking, 
are  the  most  indifferent  kind  of  people 
I  ever  saw.  I  dare  say  the  men  would 
fight  very  well  (if  properly  officered),  .  .  . 
although  they  are  an  exceedingly  dirty 
and  nasty  people.  ...  It  is  among  the 
most  difficult  tasks  I  ever  undertook  in 
my  life  to  induce  these  people  to  believe 
there  is  or  can  be  any  danger  till  the  bayo- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

net  is  pushed  at  their  breasts.  Not  that 
it  proceeds  from  any  uncommon  prowess, 
but  rather  from  the  unaccountable  kind 
of  stupidity  in  the  lower  class  of  these 
people,  which,  believe  me,  prevails  too 
generally  among  the  officers  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts part  of  the  army,  who  are  nearly 
of  the  same  kidney  with  the  privates." 
There  may  have  been  something  of  the 
Virginia  cavalier  in  these  words;  but, 
however  that  may  be,  Washington's  trials 
at  thi^critical  time  w'ere  extremely  harass- 
ing. He  was  forced  to  stand  by  and  wit- 
ness the  disbanding  of  a  part  of  his  army 
through  short  enlistments.  He  was 
pressed  with  the  necessity  of  recruiting 
another  army  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy 
liable  to  give  battle  any  day.  There  was 
just  cause  for  complaint  when  a  man  of 
Washington's  courage  and  nerve  could 
write;  "Could  I  have  foreseen  what  I  have 


PRESIDENT.  191 

experienced  and  am  likely  to  experience, 
no  consideration  upon  earth  could  have 
induced  me  to  accept  this  command." 
This  feeling  concerning  New  England 
troops  soon  left  him,  and  afterwards  he 
wrote  strong  words  of  commendation  on 
the  soldierly  qualities  of  New  England 
men. 

Six  weeks  after  his  arrival  in  Boston 
Washington  had  his  plan  for  defense  com- 
pleted. During  the  winter  he  employed 
the  time  by  gathering  military  stores, 
arms,  and  ammunition  for  the  use  of  his 
troops.  For  six  months  the  two  camps 
were  within  a  mile  of  each  other,  and  did 
little  but  guard  duty.  Quiet  was  main- 
tained on  the  part  of  the  English  by  the 
memory  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  the  Conti- 
nentals rested  on  their  arms  for  lack  of 
powder. 

By  March  following  Washington  had 


192          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

succeeded  in  getting  sufficient  powder  to 
warrant  an  attack  upon  the  British.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  he  had  brought  cannon 
through  the  forests  from  Ticonderoga, 
and  in  one  night  threw  up  fortifications 
and  mounted  his  guns  on  Dorchester 
Heights.  The  British  had  been  caught 
napping.  The  fortification  of  this  stra- 
tegic point  completed  Washington's  line 
of  defense  about  Boston.  The  town  and 
its  harbor  were  now  in  full  range  of  the 
cannon  on  Dorchester  Heights.  This 
move  filled  the  English  officers  with 
alarm,  and  on  the  I7th  of  March  eight 
thousand  British  troops  and  nine  hundred 
Tory  citizens  of  Boston  found  it  conven- 
ient to  take  a  sea-voyage  to  Halifax,  leav- 
ing behind  them  all  their  medical  sup- 
plies and  instruments,  two  thousand 
cannon,  and  a  great  quantity  of  military 
stores,  powder,  muskets,  gun-carriages, 


PRESIDENT.  193 

and  small  arms.  To  this  day  the  citizens 
of  Boston  are  called  from  their  slumbers 
at  six  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  i/th 
of  March,  by  the  belfry  bells  ringing  out 
in  memory  of  "Evacuation-day." 

Washington  took  possession  of  the 
town,  establishing  his  headquarters  in 
Mrs.  Edwards's  boarding-house,  the  place 
formerly  occupied  by  General  Howe,  the 
British  commander.  There  is  an  amusing 
story  told  concerning  Washington's  stay 
in  this  house.  One  .day  he  took  the  little 
granddaughter  of  his  hostess  on  his  knee, 
and  asked  her  which  she  liked  the  better, 
the  red  coats  or  the  provincials.  "The 
red  coats,"  was  the  reply.  "Ah,  my  dear," 
said  the  commander,  with  a  twinkle  in  his 
eye,  "they  look  better,  but  they  do  n't 
fight.  The  ragged  fellows  are  the  boys 
for  fighting."  • 

Washington  was  not  so  carried  away 
*  3 


i$4         GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

with  his  bloodless  victory,  as  to  neglect 
the  significance  of  the  future.  He  knew 
the  English  Government  would  send  a 
greater  army  against  the  Colonies,  and  he 
surmised  the  scene  of  action  would  be 
transferred  from  Boston  to  New  York. 
Leaving  a  sufficient  number  of  troops  in 
Boston  to  garrison  the  town,  he  marched 
with  his  army  to  New  York,  and  on  the 
1 3th  of  April,  1776,  he  began  organizing 
the  defense  of  that  city  by  recruiting  the 
army  and  erecting  fortifications. 

At  this  time  he  was  fully  convinced 
that  there  was  no  possibility  for  America 
to  obtain  her  freedom  by  remaining  a  sub- 
ject of  the  British  crown.  He  was  ready 
for  independence.  The  war  was  now  to 
be  carried  on  with  that  end  in  view.  On 
the  4th  of  July,  1776,  Congress  issued  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Washing- 
ton ordered  this  immortal  document  to 


PRESIDENT,  195 

be  read  before  the  army.  It  was  received 
with  great  enthusiasm,  both  by  the  sol- 
diers and  citizens  in  the  Colonies. 

Not  long  after  the  issue  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence,  a  large  British 
fleet  dropped  anchor  in  New  York  Bay. 
This  meant  war  on  a  more  extensive  scale 
than  had  ever  before  been  witnessed  on 
the  American  continent.  The  British 
Lion  was  aroused,  and  determined  to 
strike  a  decisive  blow. 

Now  followed  a  year  of  humiliating  dis- 
asters to  the  American  cause.  Washing- 
ton's army  was  driven  from  Long  Island; 
Fort  Washington  on  the  Hudson  was 
forced  to  surrender  more  than  three  thou- 
sand soldiers,  opening  the  great  river  to 
the  navigation  of  English  men-of-war. 
The  British  forces  chased  Washington's 
depleted  army  through  the  Jerseys  far 
across  the  Delaware  River,  Jn  the 


196          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

of  these  defeats  Washington  never  lost 
heart.  After  crossing  the  Delaware,  he 
stopped  for  a  time  in  his  retreat,  and,  like 
a  wounded  lion  furious  to  deal  a  dying 
blow,  he  recrossed  the  Delaware  in  the 
darkness  of  a  winter  night,  and  won  the 
great  victory  of  Trenton.  In  January, 
1777,  he  went  into  winter  quarters  at 
Morristown  with  an  army  of  less  than  four 
thousand  men.  This  was  the  end  of  his 
first  campaign. 

In  the  opening  spring  he  regained  the 
Jerseys,  coming  off  the  victor  in  several 
engagements,  but  was  soon  driven  out 
by  the  pressure  of  the  British  force. 
Brandywine  was  a  British  victory,  and 
defeat  was  measured  out  to  him  at  Ger- 
mantown.  The  British  army  had  gained 
possession  of  Philadelphia,  and  driven  the 
Continental  Congress  farther  South. 

In  the  winter  of  1777-78,  Washington 


PRESIDENT.  197 

went  into  quarters  at  Valley  Forge.  In 
that  terrible  winter  the  sufferings  of  the 
Continental  army  were  indescribable. 
Yet  the  Ideal  Patriot,  George  Washing- 
ton, did  not  yield  to  despair.  In  1776  he 
had  an  army  of  forty-seven  thousand  men; 
in  1777  it  was  less  than  twenty  thousand. 
The  division  with  Washington  at  Valley 
Forge  was  shelterless  and  poorly  clad; 
blankets  were  so  scarce  that  terrible  win- 
ter that  many  soldiers  were  forced  to 
stand  all  night  by  times  around  the  camp- 
fires  to  keep  from  freezing.  At  one  time 
more  than  one  hundred  soldiers  had  not 
a  shoe  to  their  feet,  and  their  line  of  march 
could  be  traced  by  the  blood-marks  which 
their  naked  feet  left  in  the  snow. 

During  that  winter  Washington  of- 
fered a  prize  for  shoes  made  from  un- 
tanned  hides.  For  months  he  had  been 
calling  the  attention  of  Congress  to  his 


198          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

needs,  yet  that  body  were  indifferent  to 
his  appeals.  "Hogsheads  of  shoes,  stock- 
ings, and  clothing  were  lying  at  different 
places  on  the  roads  and  in  the  woods  per- 
ishing for  want  of  teams  or  money  to  pay 
the  teamsters,"  yet  Congress  failed  to  vote 
measures  for  his  relief.  The  only  action 
put  forth  by  that  body  at  this  time  was 
the  vote  passed  removing  both  the  com- 
missariat and  quartermaster-general's  de- 
partment from  his  control. 

In  the  midst  of  these  difficulties  there 
arose  an  ugly  plot  on  the  part  of  some  of 
his  trusted  generals  to  displace  Washing- 
ton as  commander-in-chief.  This  con- 
spiracy was  known  as  the  "Conway  Ca- 
bal." The  treason  of  Benedict  Arnold 
and  his  desertion  to  the  enemy  was  the 
bitterest  part  of  that  cup  of  suffering 
from  which  Washington  was  forced  to 
drink  during  the  dark  days  of  the  Revo- 


PRESIDENT.  199 

lution.  Arnold  was  a  man  for  whom 
Washington  cherished  a  deep  affection. 
When  he  learned  that  his  friend  had 
played  the  part  of  a  traitor,  great  sobs 
broke  from  his  distressed  heart,  and  all 
night  long  he  paced  his  room  in  company 
with  his  bitter  thoughts. 

The  only  ray  of  bright  light  which 
shone  through  these  dark  days  upon  the 
American  cause  was  the  good  news  that 
the  British  General  Burgoyne  had  been 
trapped  at  Saratoga  by  General  Gates, 
surrendering  over  five  thousand  regulars. 
But  even  this  victory  brought  with  it 
something  more  than  joy  to  the  heart  of 
Washington,  for  it  carried  with  it  a  certain 
feeling  of  distrust  on  the  part  of  the  coun- 
try as  to  the  efficiency  of  Washington's 
leadership.  Even  New  England  became 
suspicious  of  him,  and  Samuel  Adams, 
noble  patriot  that  he  was,  wanted  demo- 


200          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

cratic  rotation  in  the  office  of  commander- 
in-chief,  suggesting  the  hiring  a  general 
by  the  year. 

Yet  hope  deferred  and  threatening  dis- 
aster did  not  make  Washington  heart- 
sick. Through  all  these  trials  he  quietly 
kept  steadfastly  to  his  purpose.  He  had 
faith  in  his  cause,  anchoring  his  hopes  to 
his  favorite  quotation,  "  'T  is  not  in  mor- 
tals to  command  success." 

Cheerful  news  soon  came  from  over  the 
sea.  The  big  brain  of  dear  old  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  planning  for  the  American 
cause  at  the  French  court,  and  after  the 
surrender  of  Burgoyne,  France  acknowl- 
edged the  independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  promising  help  to  the 
cause  of  American  freedom  in  money, 
men,  and  munitions  of  war.  The  period 
of  the  American  Revolution  has  a  litera- 
ture of  its  own.  There  is  not  space 


PRESIDENT.  201 

enough  in  this  volume  to  tell  fully  the 
story  of  the  war,  and,  if  there  were,  it 
would  be  presumption  on  the  part  of  the 
writer  to  attempt  it.  For  a  full  and  fasci- 
nating account  of  those  heroic  days  the 
reader  is  referred  to  the  charming  pages 
of  Mr.  John  Fiske's  "American  Revolu- 
tion." It  is  no  disparagement  to  Ameri- 
can leaders  and  soldiers  to  say  that,  with- 
out French  intervention,  the  cause  of 
America  could  not  have  been  carried  to 
victory.  American  gratitude  associates 
very  tenderly  the  name  of  the  dashing 
young  French  nobleman,  Lafayette,  with 
that  of  her  great  patriot,  Washington. 

At  last  the  end  came.  At  Yorktown 
the  blow  was  struck  which  closed  the  war. 
On  the  i Qth  of  October,  1782,  the  formal 
surrender  of  the  British  forces  under  Lord 
Cornwallis  took  place,  and  on  the  iQth 
day  of  April,  1783,  just  eight  years  to  a 


202          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

day  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  peace 
was  proclaimed  between  the  two  nations 
in  the  contest.  The  terms  of  the  surren- 
der of  Lord  Cornwallis  specified  that  the 
British  flag  was  not  to  fly,  and  American 
music  must  not  be  played.  The  band 
selected  an  old  English  air,  called  "The 
World  Turned  Upside  Down."  The  title 
of  the  piece  of  music  must  have  been  de- 
scriptive of  the  feelings  of  the  English 
prime  minister,  Lord  North,  for,  upon 
hearing  of  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis,  he 
exclaimed,  "O  God,  it  is  all  over!" 

Washington's  first  order  after  the  sur- 
render was  a  call  for  a  day  of  public 
thanksgiving  and  praise  to  God.  "Divine 
service  is  to  be  performed  to-morrow  in 
the  several  brigades  and  divisions.  The 
commander-in-chief  earnestly  recom- 
mends that  the  troops  not  on  duty  should 
universally  attend  with  the  seriousness  of 


PRESIDENT.  203 

deportment  and  gratitude  of  heart  which 
the  recognition  of  such  reiterated  and 
astonishing  interpositions  of  Providence 
demand  of  us." 

In  the  interim  between  the  surrender 
at  Yorktown  and  the  final  disbanding  of 
the  army  there  were  many  serious  diffi- 
culties besetting  the  young  Nation. 
Washington  still  kept  his  hand  on  the 
helm,  and  guided  the  contending  factions 
into  peaceful  waters.  Congress  had  made 
no  satisfactory  provision  for  the  back  pay 
of  the  soldiers.  The  men  who  had  stood 
with  Washington  through  those  trying 
years  of  war  were  angered  at  this  show 
of  ingratitude.  An  anonymous  letter  had 
been  sent  through  the  army  threatening 
serious  action  if  their  wages  were  not  pro- 
vided for.  Washington  saw  the  danger 
to  the  success  of  the  Nation  in  this  threat, 
and  immediately  called  the  officers  and 


204          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

men  before  him,  reading  to  them  a  long, 
pleading,  and  telling  speech  full  of  the 
noblest  patriotism.  He  had  proceeded 
but  a  little  way  in  his  reading,  when  he 
paused  for  several  moments,  slowly  took 
his  spectacles  from  his  pocket,  and,  in  the 
process  of  adjusting  them,  feelingly  said: 
"Gentlemen,  you  will  pardon  me  for  put- 
ting on  my  glasses.  I  have  grown  gray 
in  your  service,  and  I  now  find  myself 
growing  blind."  It  was  a  magnetic  touch 
of  sentiment,  and  deeply  affected  his  audi- 
ence, causing  them  to  listen  with  fixed 
attention  to  his  words  and  to  heed  his 
appeal. 

When  the  time  came  for  disbanding 
the  army,  Washington,  with  his  officers 
and  a  few  of  the  troops,  were  in  New 
York.  He  was  about  to  return  to  private 
life  at  Mount  Vernon.  Gathering  his 


PRESIDENT.  205 

officers  about  him  in  the  old  Fraunce 
Tavern  in  Broad  Street,  he  said,  with  deep 
emotion  in  his  voice:  "I  can  not  come 
to  each  of  you  to  take  my  leave,  but  shall 
be  obliged  if  each  of  you  will  come  and 
take  me  by  the  hand."  General  Knox, 
who  stood  nearest,  was  the  first  to  extend 
his  hand  to  his  great  chief.  With  tears  in 
his  eyes,  Washington  took  the  hand  of  his 
much-loved  comrade  in  arms,  drew  him 
towards  him,  and  kissed  him.  All  the 
others  were  greeted  with  the  same  affec- 
tionate parting.  He  was  then  escorted  to 
the  North  River,  where  he  crossed  by 
ferry  and  proceeded  to  Philadelphia. 
After  such  a  scene,  let  the  American  peo- 
ple hear  no  more  of  the  statement  that  the 
Father  of  his  Country  was  not  an  affec- 
tionate man.  On  the  23d  of  December, 
1783,  Washington  presented  his  resigna- 


206          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

tion  as  commander-in-chief,  and  again  be- 
came a  private  citizen.  The  next  day  he 
returned  to  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon. 
American  political  affairs  were  in  a  de- 
plorable condition  at  the  close  of  the  Rev- 
olution. The  Colonies  were  free  from  the 
English  yoke,  but  there  was  a  sad  lack 
of  union  between  them.  War  had  for  a 
time  bound  them  together  in  a  common 
interest,  but  upon  the  establishment  of 
peace  their  old  sectional  jealousies  were 
tearing  them  asunder.  "Thirteen  staves, 
and  ne'er  a  hoop  do  not  make  a  barrel," 
was  the  quaint  way  in  which  one  of  their 
statesmen  described  their  condition.  Men 
called  "Virginia  or  Carolina  my  country." 
They  had  not  yet  come  under  the  spell 
of  that  patriotism  represented  by  the  word 
America.  The  Nation  had  as  yet  no  ex- 
istence. Our  studious  historian,  Mr. 
Fiske,  says:  "It  is  not  too  much  to  say 


PRESIDENT.  207 

that  the  period  of  five  years  following  the 
peace  of  1783  was  the  most  critical  mo- 
ment in  all  the  history  of  the  American 
people."  In  this  serious  time  Washington 
was  again  called  from  his  loved  home,  and 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Nation. 

In  1787  the  great  Constitutional  Con- 
vention was  called.  Virginia  sent  George 
Washington  at  the  head  of  her  delegation. 
When  the  Convention  assembled  in  Phila- 
clephia,  Washington  was  chosen  as  its  pre- 
siding officer.  This  august  body  of  Na- 
tion-makers was  composed  of  fifty-five 
members.  They  assembled  day  after  day 
for  a  period  of  four  months,  discussing  and 
formulating  the  great  principles  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  Mr.  Bancroft  calls  them  "the 
goodliest  fellowship  of  lawgivers  whereof 
this  world  holds  record."  And  of  their 
work — the  Constitution  of  the  United 


208          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

States  of  America — Mr.  Gladstone  de- 
clares that  it  is  "the  most  wonderful  work 
ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the 
brain  and  purpose  of  man."  This  Con- 
vention adjourned  on  the  I7th  of  Septem- 
ber, and  on  the  igth  the  great  document 
was  published  throughout  the  country, 
and  finally  accepted  by  the  States. 

The  question  of  selecting  a  President 
for  the  new  Government  was  the  first 
claiming  the  attention  of  the  people.  The 
Constitution  provided  for  the  election  of 
an  Executive  who  should  be  called  "the 
President  of  the  United  States."  When 
the  time  came  for  the  election  of  such 
an  officer  to  direct  the  course  of  the  Na- 
tion, all  minds  turned  to  Washington,  and 
he  was  chosen  President  without  a  dis- 
senting vote.  He  held  this  high  office  for 
two  terms,  extending  over  a  period  of 
eight  years.  Through  all  these  years  he 


PRESIDENT.  209 

guided  the  Ship  of  State  with  that  per- 
.sistent  wisdom  and  justice  which  had 
characterized  his  administration  of  all 
matters  connected  with  his  fellow-men, 
drawing  the  lightning  from  the  clouds  of 
faction,  and  conducting  it  harmlessly  to 
the  ground.  The  renowned  hero  of  the 
battle-field  became  the  successful  and  wise 
administrator  in  the  times  of  peace. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  1797,  Washing- 
ton's term  of  office  as  President  expired, 
and  again  he  congratulated  himself  that 
he  was  permitted  to  put  great  duties  aside, 
and  resume  the  quiet  life  of  a  husbandman 
at  Mount  Vernon.  It  was  not  a  quiet  life, 
however,  for  he  was  a  man  with  a  world- 
wide fame,  and  was  forced  to  pay  the  in- 
cident penalty.  Visitors  beset  him  from 
all  quarters;  artists  from  over  the  sea  came 
to  paint  his  portrait;  curiosity-seekers 

thronged  Mount  Vernon  until  even  Vir- 
14 


2io         GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ginia  hospitality  was  taxed  to  its  utmost 
endurance. 

This  did  not  last  long,  for  the  Ideal 
Patriot  was  near  his  end.  On  December 
12,  1799,  this  man,  who  was  proof  against 
the  deadly  arrows  of  savage  Indians  and 
the  whizzing  bullets  of  the  battle-field,  was 
stricken  at  last  by  the  unerring  aim  of  the 
archer  Death.  He  had  spent  the  day  rid- 
ing over  his  farms,  while  "rain,  hail,  and 
snow"  were  "falling  alternately,  with  a 
cold  wind."  When  he  returned  home  he 
was  chilled  through.  The  next  day  he 
kept  in-doors  most  of  the  time,  "and  com- 
plained of  having  a  sore  throat."  "He 
had  a  hoarseness,  which  increased  in  the 
evening;  but  he  made  light  of  it,  as  he 
would  never  take  anything  to  carry  off  a 
cold,  always  observing,  "Let  it  go  as  it 
me/  " 

The    following    day    the    doctor    was 


PRESIDENT.  2 1 1 

called,  and  found  his  patient  in  much  dis- 
tress. He  could  "swallow  nothing,"  "ap- 
peared to  be  distressed,  convulsed,  and 
almost  suffocated."  Later  in  the  day  he 
gave  directions  concerning  his  will,  and 
then  said,  "I  find  I  am  going,"  and,  "smil- 
ing," remarked,  "that,  as  it  was  the  debt 
which  we  must  all  pay,  he  looked  to  the 
event  with  perfect  resignation."  To  Dr. 
Craik  he  said:  "I  die  hard,  but  I  am  not 
afraid  to  go.  I  believed  from  my  first 
attack  that  I  should  not  survive  it;  my 
breath  can  not  last  long."  Thanking  his 
attendants  for  their  tender  care,  he  re- 
quested them  to  trouble  themselves  no 
more;  "but  let  me  go  off  quietly."  His 
last  words  were,  "  'T  is  well." 

"About  ten  minutes  before  he  expired, 
his  breathing  became  much  easier;  he  lay 
quiet,  .  .  .  and  felt  his  own  pulse.  .  .  . 
The  general's  hand  fell  from  his  wrist," 


212          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Between  the  hours  of  ten  and  eleven 
o'clock  that  night  his  noble  spirit  passed 
beyond  the  scenes  of  earth's  turmoils  and 
cares  into  the  rest  and  peace  of  the  Better 
Land. 

"There's  a  star  in  the  West  that  shall  never  go 

down, 

Till  the  records  of  valor  decay ; 
We  must  worship  its  light,  though  't  is  not  our 

own, 

For  liberty  bursts  in  its  ray. 
Shall  the  name  of  a  Washington  ever  be  heard 

By  a  freeman,  and  thrill  not  his  breast? 
Is  there  one  out  of  bondage  that  hails  not  the 

word 
As  the  Bethlehem-star  of  the  west?" 


CHAPTER  XII. 
WASHINGTON'S  VISION  OF  THE  WEST. 

AT  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  the 
1 3th  of  September,  1759,  General 
Wolfe  and  his  gallant  English  sol- 
diers found  themselves  in  possession  of 
the  fateful  Plains  of  Abraham.  Mont- 
calm,  the  French  general  who  held  Que- 
bec, the  citadel  of  Canada,  was  thunder- 
struck when  informed  that  the  English 
were  on  the  heights;  but  the  contest  was 
on,  and  there  was  fought  the  memorable 
battle  that  decided  whether  Englishmen 
or  Frenchmen  were  to  take  the  leadership 
of  American  affairs. 

"With  the  triumphs  of  Wolfe  on  the 
Heights  of  Abraham  began  the  history  of 

the  United  States,"  is  the  estimate  Mr. 

213 


214          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Green,  the  historian,  places  upon  this 
event.  Our  own  charming  historic 
writer,  Mr.  John  Fiske,  says:  'The  tri- 
umph of  Wolfe  marks  the  greatest  turn- 
ing-point as  yet  discoverable  in  modern 
history."  Another  writer,  describing  how 
the  English  cause  that  day  was  the  cause 
of  America,  and  especially  of  the  great 
West,  eloquently  says:  "Montcalm  stood 
for  the  old  regime,  Wolfe  for  the  House 
of  Commons;  Montcalm  for  the  alliance 
of  king  and  priest,  Wolfe  for  habeas  corpus 
and  free  inquiry;  Montcalm  for  the  past, 
Wolfe  for  the  future;  Montcalm  for  Louis 
XV  and  Madame  de  Pompadour,  Wolfe 
for  George  Washington  and  Abraham 
Lincoln." 

Prior  to  the  battle  of  Quebec  the  en- 
tire Mississippi  Valley,  from  Canada  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  under  the  do- 
minion of  France,  the  English  possessions 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST.          215 

comprising  only  a  skeleton  of  Colonies 
lying  along  the  Atlantic  Coast.  When, 
amid  the  crash  of  Wolfe's  musketry  that 
day  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  victory 
perched  upon  the  English  banner,  a 
changed  destiny  awaited  the  American 
people.  There  it  was  settled  forever  that 
the  resources  and  possibilities  of  America 
were  to  be  developed  by  New  England, 
and  not  by  New  France.  "Wolfe's  vic- 
tory," says  Bancroft,  "one  of  the  most 
momentous  in  the  annals  of  mankind, 
gave  to  the  English  tongue  and  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  Germanic  race  the  unex- 
plored and  seemingly  infinite  West  and 
North." 

The  possession  of  the  great  West  was 
the  principal  stake  for  which  France  and 
England  had  contended  here  in  America 
during  more  than  half  a  century.  In 
1753,  six  years  previous  to  the  fall  of 


216          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

Quebec,  George  Washington,  then 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  comes  before  us 
for  the  first  time  in  this  struggle  between 
France  and  England  for  the  dominion  of 
the  great  West.  About  this  time  a  num- 
ber of  Maryland  and  Virginia  Colonists 
formed  an  association  known  as  the  Ohio 
Company,  organized  for  the  purpose  of 
colonizing  the  Ohio  Valley.  Lawrence 
Washington,  George  Washington's  old- 
est brother,  was  the  manager,  and  Au- 
gustine, another  brother,  was  one  of  the 
charter  members/  This  scheme  of  plant- 
ing English  Colonists  in  the  Ohio  Valley 
was  a  subject  of  frequent  conversation  at 
Mount  Vernon;  for  we  must  remember 
that  both  the  Massachusetts  and  Virginia 
charters,  given  by  James  I,  included  the 
whole  country  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  One  can  easily  imagine  how  this 
project  took  possession  of  the  mind  of 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST.          217 

young  Washington.  He  seems  to  have 
had  a  vision,  which  revealed  to  him  the 
importance  of  the  West  to  the  future  of 
America,  and  to  it  he  ever  afterwards 
yielded  unhesitating  obedience. 

During  the  period  when  the  Ohio 
Company  was  receiving  such  attention 
from  the  intelligent  and  enterprising  men 
of  Virginia,  through  the  influence  of  Lord 
Fairfax,  an  intimate  friend  of  the  family, 
George  Washington  received  his  commis- 
sion as  public  surveyor.  In  this  capacity 
he  made  many  journeys  into  the  wilder- 
ness beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains, 
receiving  his  first  experience  in  wood- 
craft and  the  exposure  of  camp-life,  be- 
coming acquainted  with  Indian  tribes  and 
studying  their  methods  of  guerrilla  war- 
fare. In  reading  the  diary  kept  by  him 
during  these  expeditions  to  the  West,  it 
is  manifest  that  the  magnitude  and  im- 


2i8          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

portance  of  that  vast  domain  made  a  pro- 
found impression  upon  him,  and  one  in- 
stinctively feels  that  he  believed  himself 
called  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  work 
of  developing  this  great  frontier. 

The  French  in  Canada  kept  a  keen  eye 
on  this  colonizing  scheme  of  the  Ohio 
Company,  and  determined  to  enter  their 
protest  against  the  westward  march  of  the 
English  Colonists  from  Virginia.  They 
gathered  stores  and  munitions  of  war 
upon  Lake  Erie,  and  in  1753  began  the 
erection  of  a  line  of  forts  from  Lake  Erie 
to  the  Ohio  River. 

This  advance  of  the  French  on  the  ter- 
ritory claimed  by  the  English  created 
alarm  among  the  Virginia  Colonists. 
Governor  Dinwiddie  resolved  to  chal- 
lenge the  right  of  the  invaders,  and  re- 
quest them  to  withdraw.  He  selected  as 
his  envoy  for  this  important  commission 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST.          219 

Major  George  Washington,  who  by  this 
time  had  received  the  appointment  of 
adjutant-general  of  the  Virginia  militia. 
The  order  was  received  by  Washington 
1  on  the  last  day  of  October,  1753.  A  close 
student  of  those  heroic  days  declares  that 
"Nothing  in  all  Washington's  career  is 
more  remarkable"  than  the  fact  that, 
while  a  mere  boy  of  twenty-one,  he  was 
"chosen  for  such  a  difficult  and  dangerous 
enterprise."  It  was  this  rough  Scotch 
Colonial  governor,  Mr.  Parkmah  sug- 
gests, "who  launched  Washington  on  his 
illustrious  career." 

On  the  1 6th  of  January,  Washington 
returned  to  Williamsburg,  and  waited  o» 
the  governor  with  the  letter  from  Saint 
Pierre,  the  French  commandant.  His 
journal,  carefully  kept  on  this  trip,  was 
considered  of  such  importance  at  the  time, 
that  the  governor  ordered  it  to  be  printed 


220          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

and  circulated  in  England  and  America. 
This  was  George  Washington's  first  ap- 
pearance in  print,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  it  was  in  connection  with  his  ear- 
liest services  in  the  struggle  for  the  great 
West  on  the  part  of  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish Colonists. 

The  French  gave  little  heed  to  the 
warning  of  the  Virginia  governor,  Saint 
Pierre  sending  word  to  him  by  Washing- 
ton that  he  was  there  by  the  orders  of 
General  Duquesne,  the  governor  of  Can- 
ada, which  orders  he  should  obey  with 
"exactness  and  resolution."  In  defiance 
of  Dinwiddie's  challenge,  a  force  of  one 
thousand  soldiers  was  pushed  still  further 
down  the  river  from  Venango  to  the 
point  where  the  Alleghany  and  Monon- 
gahela  unite  to  form  the  Ohio;  the  sixty 
men  sent  there  by  the  Ohio  Company  to 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST.          221 

build  a  fort  were  driven  out,  and  the 
French  army  took  possession  of  the  post, 
and  built  a  strong  fort  themselves,  nam- 
ing it  Fort  Duquesne,  after  their  gov- 
ernor. 

This  position — the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Pittsburg — had  been  selected  by 
Washington  himself,  who  regarded  it  as 
the  key  to  the  whole  territory  in  dispute. 
Such  an  aggressive  move  on  the  part  of 
the  French  was  interpreted  as  a  declara- 
tion of  war  by  the  Colonists  in  Virginia, 
and  Washington,  now  lieutenant-colonel, 
in  command  of  Virginia  troops  was  sent 
to  the  scene  of  action  to  carry  on  the  war. 
The  battles  of  Great  Meadows,  Fort  Ne- 
cesity,  and  Braddock's  Field  have  already 
been  described  in  this  volume;  they  are 
here  mentioned  to  show  that  in  the  mili- 
tary career  of  George  Washington  his 


222  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

first  service  was  rendered  to  save  the 
Western  territory  for  the  future  develop- 
ment of  the  United  States  of  America. 

When  peace  spread  her  wings  oirer  the 
land  after  the  fall  of  Quebec,  Washington 
was  just  settling  down  at  Mount  Vernon 
as  a  married  man.  In  the  midst  of  the 
duties  pertaining  to  the  life  of  a  husband- 
man, he  was  still  earnestly  engaged  in 
maturing  plans  for  the  colonization  of  the 
Western  border.  Through  his  influence 
large  tracts  of  land  were  awarded  the  offi- 
cers of  the  army  in  consideration  for  their 
services  in  the  French  war.  He  projected 
schemes  looking  toward  the  importation 
of  Germans  for  the  settlement  of  the  lands 
lying  in  the  great  western  woods.  He  was 
personally  interested  in  an  extensive 
"land  boom"  for  the  West.  And  this  not 
simply  for  money-making  purposes. 
There  was  nothing  discreditable  to  Wash- 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST.          223 

ington  in  his  land  speculations.  "He  con- 
templated an  extensive  public  benefit,  as 
well  as  private  advantage."  In  this  re- 
spect he  was  the  forerunner  of  that  Ameri- 
can public  spirit  which  has  united  private 
enterprise  and  public  good  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  continent.  Washington  was 
convinced,  by  a  practical  sagacity  which 
seldom  failed  him,  that  the  course  of  em- 
pire in  America  was  westward.  In  this 
the  Virginia  statesman  and  soldier  antici- 
pated, by  some  hundred  years,  the  famous 
dictum  of  Horace  Greeley — "Go  west, 
young  man." 

During  the  stormy  days  of  the  Revo- 
lution, Washington's  mind  was  con- 
fronted by  other  problems,  and  his  active 
interest  in  Western  matters  subsided 
somewhat;  yet  even  during  the  trying- ex- 
periences of  that  conflict  we  catch 
glimpses  which  show  that  the  West  still 


224          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

held  a  place  in  his  thought.  In  case  the 
cause  of  the  patriots  was  lost  on  the  East- 
ern battle-fields,  he  had  determined  to 
withdraw  his  army  into  the  virgin  forests 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  and  there 
defy  and  hector  King  George  by  main- 
taining a  guerrilla  warfare.  When  it  was 
intimated  during  the  darkest  days  of  the 
Revolution  that  the  emperor  of  Russia 
had  joined  hands  with  the  British  to  crush 
the  cause  of  liberty,  Washington  was 
asked  one  day  by  a  serious  patriot,  "If  this 
be  true,  and  we  are  driven  from  the  Atlan- 
tic border,  what  is  to  be  done?"  "We  will 
retire  to  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  there 
be  free,"  was  the  prompt  answer. 

When  the  war  was  over,  and  peace 
with  England  was  established,  Washing- 
ton turned  again  to  his  vision  of  the  west- 
ward march  of  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica; for  it  must  be  remembered  that  be- 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST.          225 

fore  the  close  of  the  war  he  repeatedly  re- 
ferred to  the  "United  States"  as  an  em- 
pire in  process  of  development;  he  saw  it 
by  faith  until  he  felt  it  as  fact.  It  has  been 
truly  said  that,  with  the  exception  of 
Hamilton,  no  man  of  his  time  grasped 
the  magnificent  future  opening  before  the 
nation  as  did  Washington. 

In  1784,  Washington,  in  a  letter  to 
Benjamin  Harrison,  governor  of  Virginia, 
outlines  and  urges  the  plan  for  making 
easy  the  trade  relations  between  the  East 
and  the  West.  This  plan  was  to  open  up 
a  route  westward  by  the  Potomac  Riven. 
He  calls  Harrison's  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  Potomac  connection  is  nearer  to 
tidewater  than  the  St.  Lawrence  by  one 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  miles;  nearer 
than  the  Hudson  River  by  one  hundred 
and  seventy-six  miles.  "The  Western 

States,"  he  argued,  "stand  as  it  were  on  a 
15 


226          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

pivot;  the  touch  of  a  feather  would  turn 
them"  either  towards  the  Mississippi  or 
the  Atlantic  Coast  in  the  outlet  for  their 
trade. 

Sectional  and  State  jealousies  were  the 
bctc  noire  of  Washington's  public  life,  and 
he  strenuously  urged  the  sinking  of  all 
such  differences  in  the  broad  scheme  of 
National  federation.  In  private  letter  and 
public  proclamation  he  sought  to  indoc- 
trinate the  people  with  the  importance  of 
National  union.  In  reading  his  able  Fare- 
well Address,  one  is  impressed  with  the 
truth  that  his  deepest  solicitation  was  not 
a  question  of  the  peaceful  relations  be- 
tween the  North  and  the  South — al- 
though even  then  slavery  was  a  threaten- 
ing cloud  on  the  horizon  of  the  future. 
The  storm-center,  as  Washington  saw  it, 
hovered  over  the  line  dividing  the  East 
from  the  West.  To  obviate  any  such  con- 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST.  227 

flict,  he  set  himself  to  develop  the  policy 
of  easy  and  free  communication  between 
the  two  sections  of  the  country,  binding 
them  together  by  river  courses,  public 
canals,  and  national  roads.  The  Potomac 
Canal  Company,  pushing  its  waterway 
through  the  Alleghanies,  uniting  the 
Western  Reserve  with  the  Eastern  Sea- 
board States,  was  the  foreshadowing  of 
our  present  great  trunk-lines  of  railroads, 
speeding  over  Western  prairies,  climbing 
with  their  white  plumes  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, uniting  the  East  and  the  West 
under  one  standard  of  national,  commer- 
cial, and  social  life. 

Washington's  policy  in  relation  to  sec- 
tional America  is  worthy  of  the  profound- 
est  attention  by  the  political  students  of 
the  present  hour.  In  our  political  and 
commercial  life  to-day  the  line  of  cleav- 
age runs  in  the  same  direction;  splitting' 


228          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

sounds  are  heard  in  our  national  elec- 
tions; and  sectional  prejudices,  aired  by 
political  demagogues,  create  dangerous 
combinations  in  our  body  politic.  Wash- 
ington was  the  first  statesman  of  his  time 
to  grasp  the  Continental  idea  of  the  Amer- 
ican Commonwealth.  His  words  to  La- 
fayette tersely  express  his  thought  on  the 
subject:  "The  honor,  power,  and  true  in- 
terest of  this  country  must  be  measured 
on  a  continental  scale."  The  first  definite 
plan  for  the  formation  of  Western  States 
is  found  in  a  letter  written  by  Washington 
to  James  Duane,  member  of  Congress 
from  New  York.  This  letter  bears  the 
date  of  September  7,  1783,  and  suggests 
the  laying  out  of  two  new  States  beyond 
the  Ohio  River.  The  State  lines  sug- 
gested by  Washington  bear  a  striking  re- 
semblance to  the  present  shape  of  the 
great  States  of  Ohio  and  Michigan.  It  is 


VISION  OF  THE  WEST,  22$ 

not  improbable  that  in  looking  at  the  lines 
of  conformation  in  these  States,  we  have 
before  us  Washington's  first  plan  for  the 
division  of  the  western  territory  into  rep- 
resentative Commonwealths. 

When  we  take  into  account  the  petty 
jealousies  and  sectional  bitterness  existing 
between  the  thirteen  Colonies,  the  hesi- 
tancy and  obstinacy  on  the  part  of  some 
in  coming  into  the  Union  under  the  Con- 
stitution, and  then  compare  this  prag- 
matic provincialism  with  Washington's 
noble  vision  of  America's  future,  we  heart- 
ily indorse  the  sentiment  of  Edwin  D. 
Mead:  "Never  does  Washington  seem 
more  truly  the  Father  of  his  Country, 
never  does  the  Great  First  in  War  stand 
so  close  to  the  Great  First  in  Peace." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON. 

IN  presenting  these  sayings  of  Washing- 
ton, the  writer  humbly  claims  the  privi- 
lege of  calling  attention  to  the  marvel- 
ous insight  of  the  man,  concerning  the 
principles  which  were  to  be  worked  into 
the  political  and  social  life  of  the  nation. 
In  Washington's  day  the  history  of  re- 
publics   presented    a    gloomy    picture; 
among  the  great  nations  of  the  world 
Liberty  meant  little  more  than  a  word 
derived  from  the  dead  language  of  the 'Ro- 
mans.   It  was  a  sorry  past  from  which  to 
draw  inspirations  for  future  democracy. 
Yet  in  this  hour  Washington  was  the 

nation's  prophet.    Like  Moses,  he  enun- 
230 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        231 

ciated  the  principles  and  designated  the 
materials  out  of  which  the  American 
Commonwealth  was  to  rise,  "according 
to  the  pattern  shown  him  in  the  mount." 
His  thought  is  clothed  in  the  stately  Eng- 
lish common  to  his  time,  a  period  when 
love-letters  were  written  after  the  manner 
of  State  documents.  In  his  letters  to  his 
mother  he  invariably  addressed  her  as 
"Honored  Madam."  Nevertheless,  his 
sentences  clearly  express  his  thought; 
they  are  not  garnets  and  rubies  gathered 
from  the  sands  of  sparkling  streams,  but 
solid  cubes  of  granite  quarried  for  the 
foundations  of  empire.  Even  to-day  a 
policy  is  relieved  of  much  debate  if  it  can 
be  shown  that  it  had  the  approval  of 
Washington. 

Washington's  favorite  quotation  was 
the  line  from  Addison: 

"'Tis  not  in  mortals  to  command  success." 


232  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

THE  END   OF  GOVERNMENT.  J 

The  aggregate  happiness  of  society, 
which  is  best  promoted  by  the  practice  of 
a  virtuous  policy,  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the 
end  of  government. 

DEMOCRACY. 

It  is  among  the  evils,  and  perhaps  not 
the  smallest,  of  democratic  governments, 
that  the  people  must  feel  before  they  will 
see.  When  this  happens,  they  are  roused 
to  action.  Hence  it  is  that  those  kinds  of 
government  are  so  slow. 

AMERICA. 

Great  Britain  thought  she  was  only  to 
hold  up  the  rod,  and  all  would  be  hushed. 

PEACE  POLICY. 

My  policy,  in  our  foreign  transactions, 
has  been  to  cultivate  peace  with  all  the 
world;  to  observe  the  treaties  with  pure 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        233 

and  absolute  faith;  to  check  every  devi- 
ation from  the  line  of  impartiality;  to  ex- 
plain what  may  have  been  misappre- 
hended, and  correct  what  may  have  been 
injurious  to  any  nation;  and  having  thus 
acquired  the  right,  to  lose  no  time  in  ac- 
quiring the  ability,  to  insist  upon  justice 
being  done  to  ourselves. 

Would  to  God  the  harmony  of  nations 
were  an  object  that  lay  nearest  to  the 
hearts  of  sovereigns,  and  that  the  incen- 
tives to  peace,  of  which  commerce  and 
facility  of  understanding  each  other  are 
not  the  most  inconsiderable,  might  be 
daily  increased! 

Washington's  words  of  advice  to  a 
nephew,  who  was  about  to  take  his  seat  in 
the  House  of  Burgesses: 

"The  only  advice  I  will  offer,"  said  he, 
"if  you  have  a  mind  to  command  the  at- 


234  GEORGE   WASHI.\<.;TO\. 

tention  of  the  House,  is  to  speak  seldom 
but  on  important  subjects,  except  such  as 
particularly  relate  to  your  constituents, 
and,  in  the  former  case,  make  yourself 
perfect  master  of  the  subject.  Never  ex- 
ceed a  decent  warmth,  and  submit  your 
sentiments  with  diffidence.  A  dictatorial 
style,  though  it  may  carry  conviction,  is 
always  accompanied  with  disgust." 

"Honesty  in  States,  as  well  as  in  indi- 
viduals, will  ever  be  found  the  soundest 
policy." 

"Discourage  vice  in  every  shape." 
The  prevalent  belief  that  Washington 
was  cold  in  the  realm  of  friendly  affections 
shows  how  his  private  life  has  been  neg- 
lected and  misunderstood.  Strip  his  let- 
ters of  the  pompous  literary  style  of  his 
day,  and  some  of  them  are  very  tender. 
Here  is  one  to  Lafayette,  after  parting 
from  the  French  Patriot,  containing;  the 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.       235 

tender  pathos  of  real  life:  "In  the  moment 
of  our  separation  upon  the  road  as  we 
traveled,  and  every  hour  since,  I  have  felt 
all  that  love,  respect,  and  attachment  for 
you  with  which  length  of  years,  close  con- 
nection, and  your  merits  have  inspired  me. 
I  often  asked  myself,  as  our  carriages  sep- 
arated, whether  that  was  the  last  sight 
I  should  ever  have  of  you.  My  fears  an- 
swered, yes.  I  called  to  mind  the  days  of 
my  youth,  that  they  had  long  fled  to  re- 
turn no  more;  that  I  was  now  descending 
the  hill  I  had  been  fifty-two  years  in  climb- 
ing; and  that,  though  I  was  blessed  with  a 
good  constitution,  I  was  of  a  short-lived 
family,  and  might  soon  expect  to  be  en- 
tombed in  the  mansion  of  my  fathers. 
These  thoughts  darkened  the  shades,  and 
gave  a  gloom  to  the  picture,  and  con- 
sequently to  my  prospects  of  ever  seeing 
you  again." 


236  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

THE  CURRENCY. 

I  am  well  aware  that  appearances 
ought  to  be  upheld,  and  that  we  should 
avoid  as  much  as  possible  recognizing, 
by  any  public  act,  the  depreciation  of  our 
currency.  ...  It  is  our  interest  and  truest 
policy,  as  far  as  it  may  be  practicable,  on 
all  occasions,  to  give  a  currency  and  value 
to  that  which  is  to  be  the  medium  of  our 
internal  commerce. 

SPECULATORS  IN  THE  CURRENCY. 
This  tribe  of  black  gentry  work  more 
effectually  against  us,  than  the  enemy's 
arms.  ...  It  is  much  to  be  lamented,  that 
each  State,  long  ere  this,  has  not  hunted 
them  down,  as  pests  to  society  and  the 
greatest  enemies  we  have  to  the  happiness 
of  America.  I  would  to  God  that  some 
one  of  the  most  atrocious  in  each  State 
was  hung  upon  a  gallows,  five  times  as 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        237 

high  as  the  one  prepared  by  Haman.  No 
punishment,  in  my  opinion,  is  too  great 
for  the  man  who  can  build  his  greatness 
upon  his  country's  ruin. 

Commerce  and  industry  are  the  best 
mines  of  a  nation. 

I  have  been  writing  to  General  Knox 
to  procure  me  homespun  broadcloth  of 
the  Hartford  fabric,  to  make  a  suit  of 
clothes  for  myself.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  a 
great  while  before  it  will  be  unfashion- 
able for  a  gentleman  to  appear  in  any 
other  dress.  Indeed,  we  have  already 
been  too  long  subject  to  British  preju- 
dices. 

WAR  AN  EVIL. 

My  first  wish  is  to  see  this  plague  of 
mankind  banished  from  the  earth,  and  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  this  world  em- 
ployed "in  more  pleasing  and  innocent 
amusements  than  in  preparing  imple- 


238  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ments,  and  exercising  them  for  the  de- 
struction of  mankind. 

MOTTO. 

Perseverance  and  spirit  have  done 
wonders  in  all  ages. 

\Vhen  we  assumed  the  soldier,  we  did 
not  lay  aside  the  citizen. 

FOREIGNERS. 

It  does  not  accord  with  the  policy  of 
this  Government  to  bestow  offices,  civil 
or  military,  upon  foreigners,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  our  oii'ii  citizens. 

PRISONERS  OF  WAR. 
I  am  informed  that  General  Putnam 
sent  to  Philadelphia,  in  irons,  Major 
Stockton,  taken  upon  the  Raritan,  and 
that  he  continues  in  strict  confinement. 
I  desire  that  if  there  is  a  necessity  for  con- 
finement, it  may  be  made  as  easy  and  com- 
fortable as  possible  to  Major  Stockton 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        239 

and  his  officers.  This  man,  I  believe,  has 
been  very  active  and  mischievous-;  but 
we  took  him  in  arms,  as  an  officer  of  the 
enemy,  and  by  the  rules  of  war  we  are 
obliged  to  treat  him  as  such,  and  not  as 
a  felon. 

KNOWLEDGE. 

Do  not  forget  that  there  ought  to  be  a 
time  appropriated  to  attain  knowledge,  as 
well  as  to  indulge  in  pleasure. 

FOREIGN  EDUCATION. 
It  has  always  been  a  source  of  serious 
regret  with  me  to  see  the  youth  of  these 
United  States  sent  to  foreign  countries 
for  the  purposes  of  education,  often  before 
their  minds  were  formed,  or  they  had  im- 
bibed any  adequate  ideas  of  the  happiness 
of  their  own ! — contracting  too  frequently 
not  only  habits  of  dissipation  and  extrava- 
gance, but  principles  unfriendly  to  repitb- 


240  GEORGE  WASHINGTON, 

Heart  government  and  the  true  and  genuine 
liberties  of  mankind,  which  thereafter  are 
rarely  overcome. 

NATIONAL  UNIVERSITY. 
That  a  National  University  in  this 
country  is  a  thing  to  be  desired,  has  al- 
ways been  my  decided  opinion;  and  the 
appropriation  of  grounds  and  funds  for  it 
in  the  Federal  City  has  long  been  con- 
templated. 

FRIENDLY  ADVICE. 

The  opinion  and  advice  of  friends  I  re- 
ceive, at  all  times,  as  a  proof  of  their 
friendship,  and  am  thankful  when  they 
are  offered. 

To  correspond  with  those  I  love  is 
among  my  highest  gratifications. 

The  company  in  which  you  improve 
most  will  be  least  expensive  to  you. 

Men's  minds  are  as  variant  as  their 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        241 

faces.  Let  your  heart  feel  the  afflictions 
and  distresses  of  every  one.  Let  your 
hand  give  in  proportion  to  your  purse, 
remembering  always  the  estimation  of  the 
widow's  mites. 

SLAVERY. 

There  is  not  a  man  living  who  wishes 
more  sincerely  than  I  do  to  see  a  plan 
adopted  for  the  abolition  of  it;  but  there 
is  only  one  proper  and  effectual  mode  by 
which  it  can  be  accomplished,  and  that 
is  by  legislative  authority.  This,  as  far  as 
my  suffrage  will  go,  shall  never  be  want- 
ing. 

I  never  mean,  unless  some  particular 
circumstance  should  compel  me  to  it,  to 
possess  another  slave  by  purchase,  it  being 
among  my  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan 
adopted  by  which  slavery  in  this  country 
may  be  abolished  by  law. 

Upon  the  decease  of  my  wife,  it  is  my 

16 


242          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

will  and  desire  that  all  the  slaves  whom  I 
hold  in  my  own  right  shall  receive  their 
freedom. 

PATRIOTISM. 

I  was  summoned  by  my  country,  whose 
voice  I  can  never  hear  but  with  vener- 
ation and  love. 

When  my  country  demands  the  sacri- 
fice, personal  ease  must  always  be  a  sec- 
ondary consideration. 

The  love  of  my  country  will  be  the  rul- 
ing influence  of  my  conduct. 

I  require  no  guard  but  the  affections 
of  the  people. 

TRUST  IN  GOD. 

I  shall  rely,  confidently,  on  that  Provi- 
dence which  has  hitherto  preserved  and 
been  bountiful  to  me. 

I  believe  that  man  was  not  designed 
bv  the  All-wise  Creator  to  live  for  himself 
alone. 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        243 

REFUSAL  OF  PECUNIARY  COMPEN- 
SATION. 

When  I  was  first  honored  with  a  call 
into  the  service  of  my  country,  then  on 
the  eve  of  an  arduous  struggle  for  its 
liberties,  the  light  in  which  I  contem- 
plated my  duty  required  that  I  should  re- 
nounce every  pecuniary  compensation. 
From  this  resolution  I  have  in  no  instance 
departed;  and  being  still  under  the  im- 
pression which  produced  it,  I  must  de- 
cline, as  inapplicable  to  myself,  any  share 
in  the  personal  emoluments  which  may 
be  indispensably  included  in  the  perma- 
nent provision  for  the  Executive  depart- 
ment; and  must  accordingly  pray  that  the 
pecuniary  estimates  for  the  station  in 
which  I  am  placed  may,  during  my  con- 
tinuance in  it,  be  limited  to  such  actual 
expenditures  as  the  publie  good  may  be 
thought  to  require, 


244  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

DOMESTIC  LIFE. 

You  may  believe  me,  my  dear  Patsy, 
when  I  assure  you,  in  the  most  solemn 
manner,  that,  so  far  from  seeking  this  ap- 
pointment,* I  have  used  every  endeavor 
in  my  power  to  avoid  it,  not  only  from 
my  unwillingness  to  part  with  you  and  the 
family,  but  from  a  consciousness  of  its 
being  a  trust  too  great  for  my  capacity; 
and  that  I  should  enjoy  more  real  happi- 
ness in  one  month  with  you  at  home,  than 
I  have  the  most  distant  prospect  of  finding 
abroad,  if  my  stay  were  to  be  seven  times 
seven  years. 

I  can  truly  say,  I  had  rather  be  at 
Mount  Vernon  with  a  friend  or  two  about 
me,  than  to  be  attended,  at  the  seat  of 
Government,  by  the  officers  of  state  and 
the  representatives  of  every  power  in  Eu- 


*  Commander-in-chief. 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        245 

rope.  I  shall  hope  that  my  friends  will 
visit  and  endeavor  to  keep  up  the  spirits 
of  my  wife  as  much  as  they  can;  for  my 
departure  will,  I  know,  be  a  cutting  stroke 
to  her. 

ADVICE  ON  MATRIMONY. 

A  woman  very  rarely  asks  an  opinion, 
or  requires  advice,  on  such  an  occasion 
till  her  resolution  is  formed;  and  then  it 
is  with  the  hope  and  expectation  of  ob- 
taining a  sanction — not  that  she  means 
to  be  governed  by  your  disapprobation; — 
that  she  applies.  In  a  word,  the  plain 
English  of  the  application  may  be 
summed  up  in  these  words:  "I  wish  you 
to  think  as  I  do;  but,  if  unhappily  you 
differ  from  me  in  opinion,  my  heart,  I 
must  confess,  is  fixed,  and  I  have  gone 
too  far  now  to  retract." 

"Went  a  fox-hunting  with  a  gentle- 
man who  came  here  yesterday.  .  .  .  After 


246          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

a  very  early  breakfast  found  a  fox  just 
back  of  Muddy  Hole  Plantation,  and  after 
a  chase  of  an  hour  and  a  quarter  with  my 
dogs  and  eight  couple  of  Doctor  Smith's 
(brought  by  Mr.  Phil.  Alexander)  we  put 
him  into  a  hollow  tree,  in  which  we  fast- 
ened him,  and  in  the  Pincushion  put  up 
another  fox,  which  in  an  hour  and  thir- 
teen minutes  was  killed.  We  then,  after 
allowing  the  fox  in  the  hole  half  an  hour, 
put  the  dogs  upon  his  trail,  and  in  half 
a  mile  he  took  to  another  hollow  tree,  and 
was  again  put  out  of  it ;  but  he  did  not  go 
six  hundred  yards  before  he  had  recourse 
to  the  same  shift.  Finding  therefore  that 
he  was  a  conquered  fox,  we  took  the  dogs 
off,  and  came  home  to  dinner." — Excerpt 
from  Diary. 

In  a  letter  to  Lafayette,  written  from 
Mount  Vernon,  he  says:  "Free  from  the 
bustle  of  a  camp  and  the  busy  scenes  of 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        247 

public  life,  I  am  solacing  myself  with  those 
tranquil  enjoyments  of  which  the  soldier, 
who  is  ever  in  pursuit  of  fame;  the  states- 
man, whose  watchful  days  and  sleepless 
nights  are  spent  in  devising  schemes  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  his  own,  perhaps 
the  ruin  of  other  countries — as  if  this 
globe  was  insufficient  for  us  all;  and  the 
courtier,  who  is  always  watching  the 
countenance  of  his  prince  in  hopes  of 
catching  a  gracious  smile,  can  have  very 
little  conception.  I  have  not  only  retired 
from  public  employments,  but  I  am  retir- 
ing within  myself,  and  shall  be  abj^e  to 
view  the  solitary  walk,  and  tread  the  paths 
of  private  life  with  heartfelt  satisfaction. 
Envious  of  none,  I  am  determined  to  be 
pleased  with  all;  and  this,  my  dear  friend, 
being  the  order  of  my  march,  I  will  move 
gently  down  the  stream  of  life  until  I  sleep 
with  my  fathers." 


248          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

RURAL  EMPLOYMENTS. 

My  time  is  now  occupied  in  rural 
amusements,  in  which  I  have  great  satis- 
faction, and  my  first  wish  is  (although  it 
is  against  the  profession  of  arms,  and 
would  clip  the  wings  of  some  of  our  young 
soldiers,  who  are  soaring  after  glory)  to 
see  the  WHOLE  WORLD  IN  PEACE,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  it  AS  ONE  BAND  OF  BROTH- 
ERS, striving  who  should  contribute  most 
to  the  happiness  of  mankind. 

Nothing  is  more  a  stranger  to  my 
breast,  or  a  sin  that  my  soul  more  abhors, 
than^hat  black  and  detestable  one,  of  in- 
gratitude. 

INTEMPERANCE. 

My  chief  reason  for  supposing  the 
West  India  trade  detrimental  to  us  was, 
that  rum,  the  principal  article  received 
from  thence,  is  the  bane  of  morals  and 
the  parent  of  idleness. 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        249 

This  I  am  certain  of,  and  can  call  my 
conscience,  and  what  I  suppose  will  be  a 
still  more  demonstrative  proof  in  the  eyes 
of  the  worl^l,  my  Orders,  to  witness,  how 
much  I  have,  both  by  threats  and  per- 
suasive means  endeavored  to  discounte- 
nance gaming,  drinking,  swearing,  and 
irregularities  of  every  other  kind. 

GIN-MILLS. 

I  apprehend  it  will  be  thought  advis- 
able to  keep  a  garrison  always  at  Fort 
Loudoun;  for  which  peason  I  would  beg 
to  represent  the  number  of  tippling- 
houses  in  Winchester  as  a  great  nuisance. 

GAMING. 

Gaming  of  every  kind  is  expressly  for- 
bidden, as  being  the  foundation  of  evil 
and  the  cause  of  many  a  brave  and  gallant 
officer's  ruin. 

Avoid  gaming.    This  is  a  vice  which  is 


250          GEORGE  WASHI.\<;I<>.\. 

productive  of  every  possible  evil;  equally 
injurious  to  the  morals  and  health  of  its 
votaries.  It  is  the  child  of  Avarice,  the 
brother  of  Iniquity,  and  the  father  of  Mis- 
chief. It  has  been  the  ruin  of  many 
worthy  families,  the  loss  of  many  a  man's 
honor,  and  the  cause  of  suicide.  The  suc- 
cessful gamester  pushes  his  good  fortune, 
till  it  is  overtaken  by  a  reverse;  the  losing 
gamester,  in  hopes  of  retrieving  past  mis- 
fortunes, goes  on  from  bad  to  worse,  till, 
grown  desperate,  he  pushes  at  everything, 
and  loses  his  all. 

RELIGIOUS  MAXIMS. 

It  is  impossible  to  account  for  the  cre- 
ation of  the  universe,  without  the  agency 
of  a  Supreme  Being. 

It  is  impossible  to  govern  the  universe, 
without  the  aid  of  a  Supreme  Being. 

It  is  impossible  to  reason,  without  ar- 
riving at  a  Supreme  Being. 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        251 

I  feel  now,  as  I  conceive  a  wearied  trav- 
eler must  do,  who,  after  treading  many  a 
painful  step  with  a  heavy  burden  on  his 
shoulders,  is  eased  of  the  latter,  having 
reached  the  haven  to  which  all  the  former 
were  directed,  and  from  his  housetop  is 
looking  back  and  tracing,  with  an  eager 
eye,  the  meanders  by  which  he  escaped  the 
quicksands  and  mires  which  lay  in  his 
way;  and  into  which  none  but  the  All- 
powerful  Guide  and  Dispenser  of  human 
events  could  have  prevented  his  falling. 
When  I  contemplate  the  interposition  of 
Providence  as  it  was  manifested  in  guid- 
ing us  through  the  Revolution,  in  prepar- 
ing us  for  the  reception  of  a  General  Gov- 
ernment, and  in  conciliating  the  good-will 
of  the  people  of  America  towards  one 
another,  after  its  adoption,  I  feel  myself 
oppressed  and  almost  overwhelmed  with  a 
sense  of  the  Divine  munificence. 


252          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

I  earnestly  pray  that  the  Omnipotent 
Being,  who  has  not  deserted  the  cause  of 
America  in  the  hour  of  its  extreme  haz- 
ard, may  never  yield  so  fair  a  heritage  to 
anarchy  or  despotism. 

The  propitious  smiles  of  Heaven  can 
never  be  expected  on  a  nation  that  dis- 
regards the  eternal  rules  of  order  and 
right,  which  Heaven  itself  has  ordained. 

I  commend  my  friends,  and  with  them 
the  interests  and  happiness  of  our  dear 
country,  to  the  keeping  and  protection 
of  Almighty  God. 

Whilst  just  government  protects  all  in 
their  religious  rites,  true  religion  affords 
government  its  surest  support. 

Of  all  the  dispositions  and  habits  which 
lead  to  political  prosperity,  religion  and 
morality  are  indispensable  supports.  In 
vain  would  that  man  claim  the  tribute  of 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        253 

patriotism,  who  should  labor  to  subvert 
these  great  pillars  of  human  HAPPINESS, 
these  firmest  props  of  the  duties  of  men 
and  citizens.  The  mere  politician,  equally 
with  the  pious  man,  ought  to  respect  and 
cherish  them.  A  volume  could  not  trace 
all  their  connections  with  private  and  pub- 
lic felicity.  Let  it  simply  be  asked,  Where 
is  the  security  for  property,  for  reputa- 
tion, for  life,  if  the  sense  of  religious  obli- 
gation desert  our  oaths,  which  are  the 
instruments  of  investigation  in  courts  of 
justice? 

The  want  of  a  chaplain,  I  humbly  con- 
ceive, reflects  dishonor  on  the  regiment, 
as  all  other  officers  are  allowed. 

The  pew  I  hold  in  the  Episcopal 
Church  at  Alexandria  shall  be  charged 
with  an  annual  rent  of  five  pounds,  Vir- 
ginia money;  and  I  promise  to  pay  an- 


254          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

nually  to  the  minister  and  vestry  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  Fairfax 
Parish. 

We  are  not  graceless  *  at  Mount  Ver- 
non. 

June  ist,  Wednesday.  —  Went  to 
Church  and  fasted  all  day. 

BENEVOLENCE. 

Having  once  or  twice  heard  you  speak 
highly  of  the  New  Jersey  College,  as  if 
you  had  a  desire  of  sending  your  son  Will- 
iam there  (who,  I  am  told,  is  a  youth 
fond  of  study  and  instruction,  and  dis- 
posed to  a  studious  life,  in  following  which 
he  may  not  only  promote  his  own  happi- 
ness, but  the  future  welfare  of  others),  I 
should  be  glad,  if  you  have  no  other  ob- 
jection to  it  than  the  expense,  if  you  would 
send  him  to  that  college  as  soon  as  con- 


t  He  always  said  £rac$  at  table. 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.         255 

venient,  and  depend  on  me  for  twenty- 
five  pounds  a  year  for  his  support,  so  long 
as  it  may  be  necessary  for  the  completion 
of  his  education. 

If  I  live  to  see  the  accomplishment  of 
this  term,  the  sum  here  stipulated  shall 
be  annually  paid.  And  if  I  die  in  the 
meantime,  this  letter  shall  be  obligation 
upon  my  heirs  or  executors  to  do  it  ac- 
cording to  the  true  intent  and  meaning 
hereof. 

No  other  return  is  expected  or  wished 
for  this  offer  than  that  you  accept  it  with 
the  same  freedom  and  good-will  with 
which  it  is  made,  and  that  you  may  not 
even  consider  it  in  the  light  of  an  obliga- 
tion, or  mention  it  as  such;  for  be  assured 
that  from  me  it  will  never  be  known. 

ALEXANDRIA  ACADEMY. 
To  the  trustees  ...  I  give  four  thou- 
sand dollars;  or,  in  other  words,  twenty  of 


256          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

the  shares  which  I  hold  in  the  Bank  of 
Alexandria,  towards  the  support  of  a  free 
school,  established  at,  or  annexed  to,  the 
Academy;  for  the  purpose  of  educating 
such  orphan  children,  or  the  children  of 
such  other  poor  and  indigent  persons  as  are 
unable  to  accomplish  it  with  their  own 
means,  and  who,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
trustees  of  the  seminary,  are  best  entitled 
to  the  benefit  of  the  donation. 

When  Washington  was  on  his  tour 
through  New  England  in  1789,  he  visited 
Ipswich.  Mr.  Cleveland,  the  minister  of 
the  town,  was  presented  to  him.  As  he 
approached,  hat  in  hand,  Washington 
said:  "Put  on  your  hat,  parson,  and  I  will 
shake  hands  with  you."  "I  can  not  wear 
my  hat  in  your  presence,  General,"  said 
the  parson,  "when  I  think  of  what  you 
have  done  for  this  country."  "You  did  as 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        257 

much  as  I."  "No,  no,"  protested  the  min- 
ister. "Yes,"  said  Washington,  "you  did 
what  you  could,  and  I  have  done  no 
more." 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  Wash- 
ington received  a  letter  from  Colonel 
Nicola,  an  intimate  friend,  containing  the 
proposition  to  make  him  king  of  America. 
In  reply  to  this  letter,  Washington  wrote 
these  words:  "With  a  mixture  of  great 
surprise  and  astonishment,  I  have  read 
with  attention  the  sentiments  you  have 
submitted  to  my  perusal.  Be  assured,  sir, 
no  occurrence  in  the  course  of  the  war 
has  given  me  more  painful  sensations 
than  your  information  of  there  being  such 
ideas  existing  in  the  army  as  you  have 
expressed,  and  I  must  view  with  abhor- 
rence and  reprehend  with  severity.  For 
the  present,  the  communication  of  them 

will  rest  in  my  own  bosom,  unless  some 
17 


258          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

further  agitation  of  the  matter  shall  make 
a  disclosure  necessary.  I  am  much  at  a 
loss  to  conceive  what  part  of  my  conduct 
could  have  given  encouragement  to  an 
address  which  to  me  seems  big  with  the 
greatest  mischiefs  that  can  befall  my 
country.  If  I  am  not  deceived  in  the 
knowledge  of  myself,  you  could  not  have 
found  a  person  to  whom  your  schemes 
are  more  disagreeable.  At  the  same  time, 
in  justice  to  my  own  feelings,  I  must  add, 
that  no  man  possesses  a  more  sincere  wish 
to  see  ample  justice  done  to  the  army  than 
I  do;  and  as  far  as  my  powers  and  influ- 
ence, in  a  constitutional  way,  extend,  they 
shall  be  employed  to  the  utmost  of  my 
abilities  to  effect  it,  should  there  be  any 
occasion.  Let  me  conjure  you,  then,  if 
you  have  any  regard  for  your  country, 
concern  for  yourself  or  posterity,  or  re- 
spect for  me,  to  banish  these  thoughts 


WORDS  OF  WASHINGTON.        259 

from  your  mind,  and  never  again  com- 
municate, or  from  yourself  or  any  one 
else,  a  sentiment  of  like  nature." 

The  Ideal  Patriot  had  defeated  King 
George  III  of  England,  and  repudiated 
"King  George  I  of  America." 

DUTY. 

The  man  who  wishes  to  steer  clear  of 
shelves  and  rocks  must  know  where  they 
lie. 

To  persevere  in  one's  duty  and  be 
silent,  is  the  best  answer  to  calumny. 

I  am  resolved  that  no  misrepresenta- 
tions, falsehoods,  or  calumny  shall  make 
me  swerve  from  what  I  conceive  to  be  the 
strict  line  of  duty. 

CONSOLATION. 

In  looking  forward  to  that  awful  mo- 
ment when  I  must  bid  adieu  to  sublunary 
things,  I  anticipate  the  consolation  of 


260          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

leaving  our  country  in  a  prosperous  con- 
dition. And  while  the  curtain  of  separa- 
tion shall  be  drawing,  my  last  breath  will, 
I  trust,  expire  in  a  prayer  for  the  temporal 
and  eternal  felicity  of  those  who  have  not 
only  endeavored  to  gild  the  evening  of 
my  days  with  unclouded  serenity,  but  ex- 
tended their  desires  to  my  happiness  here- 
after in  a  brighter  world. 

Do  not  flatter  me  with  vain  hopes.  I 
am  not  afraid  to  die,  and  therefore  can 
hear  the  worst. 

Whether  to-night  or  twenty  years 
hence  makes  no  difference.  I  know  that 
I  am  in  the  hands  of  a  good  Providence. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON. 

"1  ^IRST  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and 
first  in  the  hearts  of  his  country- 
men."— Henry  Lee. 

"My  fine  crab-tree  walking-stick  with 
a  gold  head,  and  curiously  wrought  in  the 
form  of  the  Cap  of  Liberty,  I  give  to  my 
friend  and  the  friend  of  mankind,  George 
Washington.  If  it  were  a  scepter  he  has 
merited  it,  and  would  become  it." — Ben- 
jamin Franklin  (in  his  Will). 

"America  has  furnished  to  the  world 
the  character  of  a  Washington.  ...  If 
our  American  institutions  had  done  noth- 
ing else,  that  alone  would  have  entitled 
them  to  the  respect  of  mankind." — Daniel 

Webster. 

261 


262          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"The  most  illustrious  and  beloved  per- 
sonage which  the  country  ever  pro- 
duced."— John  Adams. 

"Washington  is  the  purest  figure  in 
history.  ...  If  among  all  the  pedestals 
supplied  by  histcjry  for  public  characters 
of  extraordinary  nobility  and  purity,  I  saw 
one  higher  than  all  the  rest,  and  if  I  were 
required  at  a  moment's  notice  to  name 
the  fittest  occupant  for  it,  I  think  my 
choice  at  any  time  during  the  last  forty- 
five  years  would  have  lighted, and  it  would 
now  light  upon  Washington." — William 
E.  Gladstone. 

"His    integrity    was    most    pure."- 
Tlwmas  Jefferson. 

"Next  to  the  saints  of  religion  must 
be  ranked  in  all  our  minds  the  saints  of 
our  country.  .  .  .  Great,  pure  leaders,  like 
those  of  historic  memory,  enlarge  polit- 


SAYINGS  ABObT  WASHINGTON.    263 

ical  philosophy  into  devotion.  .  .  .  The 
soldiers  of  Valley  Forge  saw  in  their  gen- 
eral a  lofty  character,  for  whom  they  could 
endure  privations,  in  whom  they  could 
trust.  When  they  were  cold  and  hungry 
and  homesick,  they  were  still  inspired  by 
the  merit  of  their  commander.  He  had 
separated  himself  from  his  wealth  and  its 
peace  to  be  a  soldier  against  the  greatest 
power  on  earth;  the  troops  saw  that  moral 
worth,  and  were  cheered  by  the  vision 
when  all  other  scenes  were  darkened. 
When  Baron  Steuben,  an  ardent  volun- 
teer from  the  German  army,  saw  the 
troops  at  Valley  Forge,  their  want  of  all 
the  comforts  of  life,  he  wondered  what 
held  the  soldiers  so  firmly  to  their  post  of 
duty.  It  was  a  moral  power  that  held 
them — the  hope  of  a  free  nation  and  faith 
in  their  chieftain.  In  Philadelphia  the 
British  army,  from  the  highest  to  the 


264          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

humblest,  was  spending  in  carousal  the 
winter  months,  which  the  Colonial  troops 
were  spending  in  all  forms  of  discomfort. 
One  British  officer  kept  a  gambling- 
house,  in  which  the  common  soldiers  were 
robbed  of  their  gold.  Thus  was  the  Brit- 
ish army  a  military  machine,  while  the 
American  army  was  a  band  of  men  with 
a  soul  in  it — an  army  of  six  thousand 
friends  of  freedom  and  of  Washington. 
Washington's  dining-room  of  logs,  in 
which  banqueting-hall,  that  could  be  du- 
plicated for  fifty  dollars,  there  was  simple 
food  and  no  carousal,  became  an  emblem 
of  the  kind  of  leader  the  file  was  trusting 
and  following." — David  Swing. 

"Egad!  he  ran  wonderfully!  We  had 
nobody,  hereabouts,  that  could  come  near 
him.  There  was  young  Langhorne  Dade, 
of  Westmoreland,  a  confounded  clean- 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    265 

made,  tight  young  fellow,  and  a  mighty 
swift  runner,  too;  but  he  was  no  match  for 
George." — An  Old  Gentleman  Neighbor. 

In  1785,  John  Hunter  visited  Mount 
Vernon,  and  describes  a  tour  through 
Washington's  stables:  "Went  to  see  his 
famous  horse,  Magnolia — a  most  beauti- 
ful creature.  A  whole  length  of  his  was1 
taken  awhile  ago  (mounted  on  Magnolia) 
by  a  famous  man  from  Europe  on  copper. 
I  afterwards  went  to  his  stables,  where, 
among  an  amazing  number  of  horses,  I 
saw  old  Nelson,  now  twenty-two  years  of 
age,  that  carried  the  general  almost  al- 
ways during  the  war.  Blueskin,  another 
fine  old  horse  next  to  him,  now  and  then 
had  that  honor.  Shaw  also  showed  me  his 
old  servant,  that  was  reported  to  have 
been  taken  with  a  number  of  the  general's 
papers  about  him.  They  have  heard  the 


266          GEORGE  WASHINGTON.' 

roaring  of  many  a  cannon  in  their  time. 
Blueskin  was  not  the  favorite,  on  account 
of  his  not  standing  fire  so  well  as  vener- 
able old  Nelson."  A  serious  fault  to  a 
man  like  Washington. 

"He  was  one  of  the  few  entirely  goo.d 
men,  in  whom  goodness  had  no  touch  of 
weakness;  one  of  the  rigorously  just,  in 
whom  justice  was  not  commingled  with 
any  severity  of  personal  temper." — Rufus 
W .  Griswold. 

"Every  one  who  met  Washington  told 
of  the  commanding  presence  and  noble 
person,  the  ineffable  dignity,  and  the 
calm,  simple,  and  stately  manners.  No 
man  ever  left  Washington's  presence 
without  a  feeling  of  reverence  and  respect 
amounting  almost  to  awe.  I  will  quote 
only  a  single  one  of  the  many  descriptions 
of  Washington,  and  I  select  it  because, 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    267 

although  it  is  the  least  favorable  of  the 
many  I  have  seen,  and  is  written  in 
homely  phrase,  it  displays  the  most  evi- 
dent and  entire  sincerity.  The  extract  is 
from  a  letter  written  by  David  Ackerson, 
of  Alexandria,  Va.,  in  1811,  in  answer  to 
an  inquiry  by  his  son.  Mr.  Ackerson 
commanded  a  company  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  'Washington  was  not,'  he 
wrote,  'what  ladies  would  call  a  pretty 
man,  but  in  military  costume  a  heroic  fig- 
ure, such  as  would  impress  the  memory 
ever  afterwards.' 

"The  writer  had  a  good  view  of  Wash- 
ington three  days  before  the  crossing  of 
the  Delaware.  'Washington/  he  says, 
'had  a  large,  thick  nose,  and  it  was  very 
red  that  day,  giving  me  the  impression 
that  he  was  not  so  moderate  in  the  use 
of  liquors  as  he  was  supposed  to  be.  I 
found  afterwards  that  this  was  a  peculiar- 


268          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ity.  His  nose  was  apt  to  turn  scarlet  in 
a  cold  wind.  He  was  standing  near  a 
small  camp-fire,  evidently  lost  in  thought 
and  making  no  effort  to  keep  warm.  He 
seemed  six  feet  and  a  half  in  height,  was 
as  erect  as  an  Indian,  and  did  not  for  a 
moment  relax  from  a  military  attitude. 
Washington's  exact  height  was  six  feet 
two  inches  in  his  boots.  He  was  then 
a  little  lame  from  striking  his  knee  against 
a  tree.  His  eye  was  so  gray  that  it  looked 
almost  white,  and  he  had  a  troubled  look 
on  his  colorless  face.  He  had  a  piece  of 
woolen  tied  around  his  throat,  and  was 
quite  hoarse.  Perhaps  the  throat  trouble 
from  which  he  finally  died  had  its  origin 
about  then.  Washington's  boots  were 
enormous.  They  were  number  13.  His 
ordinary  walking  shoes  were  number  n. 
His  hands  were  large  in  proportion,  and 
he  could  not  buy  a  glove  to  fit  him,  and 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    269 

had  to  have  his  gloves  made  to  order. 
His  mouth  was  his  strong  feature,  the  lips 
being  always  tightly  compressed.  That 
day.  they  were  compressed  so  tightly  as 
to  be  painful  to  look  at.  At  that  time  he 
weighed  two  hundred  pounds,  and  there 
was  no  surplus  flesh  about  him.  He  was 
tremendously  muscled,  and  the  fame  of 
his  great  strength  was  everywhere.  His 
large  tent,  when  wrapped  up  with  the 
poles,  was  so  heavy  that  it  required  two 
men  to  place  it  in  the  camp-wagon. 
Washington  would  lift  it  with  one  hand 
and  thrbw  it  in  the  wagon  as  easily  as  if  it 
were  a  pair  of  saddle-bags.  He  could  hold 
a  musket  with  one  hand,  and  shoot  with 
precision  as  easily  as  other  men  did  with 
a  horse-pistol.  His  lungs  were  his  weak 
point,  and  his  voice  was  never  strong.  He 
was  at  that  time  in  the  prime  of  life.  His 
hair  was  a  chestnut-brown,  his  cheeks 


270          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

were  prominent,  and  his  head  was  not 
large  in  contrast  to  every  other  part  of  his 
body,  which  seemed  large  and  bony  at 
all  points.  His  finger-joints  and  wrists 
were  so  large  as  to  be  genuine  curiosities. 
.  .  .  He  was  an  enormous  eater,  but  was 
content  with  bread  and  meat  if  he  had 
plenty  of  it.  ...  I  saw  him  at  Alexandria 
a  year  before  he  died.  His  hair  was  very 
gray,  and  his  form  was  slightly  bent.' 

"This  description  is  certainly  not  a  flat- 
tering one,  and  all  other  accounts,  as  well 
as  the  best  portraits,  prove  that  Washing- 
ton was  a  much  handsomer  man  than  this 
letter  would  indicate.  Yet  the  writer,  de- 
spite his  freedom  from  all  illusions  and 
his  readiness  to  state  frankly  all  defects, 
was  profoundly  impressed  by  Washing- 
ton's appearance  as  he  watched  him  medi- 
tating by  the  camp-fire  at  the  crisis  of  his 
country's  fate,  and  herein  lies  the  princi- 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    271 

pal  interest  of  his  description." — Henry 
Cabot  Lodge. 

"This  serene,  inflexible,  decisive  man, 
biding  his  hour,  could  be  then  the  ven- 
turesome soldier,  willing  to  put  every  for- 
tune on  a  chance,  risking  himself  with  a 
Courage  that  alarmed  men  for  his  life. 
Does  any  but  a  fool  think  that  he  could 
have  been  all  these  things,  and  not  have 
had  in  him  the  wild  blood  of  passion?  He 
had  a  love  for  fine  clothes  and  show.  He 
was,  I  fear,  at  times  extravagant,  and,  as 
I  have  heard,  could  not  pay  his  doctor's 
bill,  and  would  postpone  that,  and  send 
him  a  horse  and  a  little  money  to  educate 
his  godson,  the  doctor's  son.  As  to  some 
of  his  letters,  they  contained  jests  not 
gross,  but  not  quite  fit  for  grave  seigniors. 
.  .  .  Was  he  religious?  I  do  not  know. 
Men  say  so.  He  might  have  been,  and  yet 


272          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

have  his  hours  of  ungoverned  rage,  or  of 
other  forms  of  human  weakness.  Like  a 
friend  of  mine,  he  was  not  given  to  speech 
concerning  his  creed.  .  .  .  He  had  no 
tricks  of  the  demagogue.  He  coveted  no 
popularity.  He  knew  not  to  seek  favor 
by  going  freely  among  men.  .  .  .  And 
yet  this  reserved  aristocrat  had  to  the  etyi 
the  love  and  confidence  of  every  soldier 
in  the  ranks." — 5.  Weir  Mitchell. 

"General  Washington  is,  I  believe,  al- 
most the  only  man  of  an  exalted  character 
who  does  not  lose  some  part  of  his  re- 
spectability by  intimate  acquaintance.  I 
have  never  found  a  single  thing  that  could 
lessen  my  respect  for  him.  A  complete 
knowledge  of  his  honesty,  uprightness, 
and  candor  in  all  his  private  transactions, 
has  sometimes  led  me  to  think  him  more 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    273 

than  man." — Mr.  Lear  (Washington's  Sec- 
retary, a  graduate  of  Harvard). 

"He  never  was  known  to  tell  a  war 
story.  Not  that  it  is  a  sin  to  tell  war 
stories;  far  from  it.  If  the  veteran  sur- 
vivor of  many  a  bloody  encounter  may 
not  fight  his  battles  o'er  again,  even  in 
the  ears  of  his  friends,  then  is  human  na- 
ture brutal,  and  freedom  a  taunting  lie. 
.  .  .  But  Washington  never  told  a  war 
story;  no  wonder  that  most  pictures  of 
him  show  him  with  a  lower  jaw  that  is 
'set'  as  defiantly  as  if  its  owner  were  de- 
termined that  nothing  should  escape 
him." — John  Habberton. 

"I  have  sometimes  made  him  laugh 
most  heartily  from  sympathy  with  my  joy- 
ous and  extravagant  spirits."  —  Miss 

Custis. 

18 


274          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"When,  long  ago,  the  ax-men  went 
into  the  woods  to  find  among  the  trees 
one  suitable  to  be  shaped  into  a  mast  for  a 
large  clipper  ship,  thousands  of  trees  had 
to  be  passed  by  with  only  a  glance.  One 
tree  had  been  twisted  by  the  wind;  one 
had  been  creased  by  the  lightning;  one 
had,  when  young,  been  bent  down  by 
some  playing  bears;  one  had  been  too 
near  to  its  neighbors,  and  had  been 
dwarfed  in  the  top ;  one  had  been  too  near 
a  stream,  and  had  had  too  much  sun  and 
air  on  the  side  next  the  water,  its  trunk 
had  bent  towards  its  greatest  limb;  one 
had  in  youth  been  scorched  by  the  fire  of 
a  hunter.  At  last  a  tree  is  found  from 
which  all  defects  are  wanting,  and  up, 
straight  as  a  draftsman's  rule,  runs  the 
wooden  shaft  for  a  hundred  feet.  The 
woodsmen  all  rejoice,  for  the  mast  is 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    275 

found.  The  tree  is  elected  from  amid  its 
fellows,  and  soon,  instead  of  wearing  its 
verdure  in  the  forest,  it  goes  careening 
on  the  ocean,  holding  up  white  sails  to 
the  journeying  wind.  Not  otherwise 
when  some  weak  Colonies  need  a  chieftain 
for  war  and  peace;  they  must  pass  by 
many  a  name  great  in  fame  before  they 
find  the  citizen  who  holds  all  the  virtues 
they  know  and  love.  No  one  dare  say 
that  Washington  was  the  only  man  who 
could  have  performed  the  needed  task. 
There  may  have  been  one  other  or  many 
others  who  could  have  led  the  people  to 
independence.  The  one  man  having  been 
found,  the  people  did  not  pursue  longer 
the  search.  Such  a  search  would  be  a 
foolish  task  for  an  historian.  Having 
found  the  mast,  the  ax-men  left  the 
woods." — David  Swing. 


276          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"He  does  what  he  thinks  he  ought  to 
do.  .  .  .  Here  is  the  finest  instance  in  his- 
tory of  the  success  of  moral  power.  .  .  . 
This  is  certain,  that  the  eagerness  of  men 
to  believe  that  pure,  moral  power  carries 
empire  with  it,  is  the  reason  why  men 
study  with  personal  interest  the  life  and 
character  of  Washington.  His  success 
seems  to  give  a  warrant  for  the  triumph 
of  humanity.  In  his  success  men  believe 
that  they  will  not  for  any  long  time  be 
given  over  to  the  sway  of  men  who  are 
merely  intellectual  tricksters  or  giants  of 
physical  force.  Men  agree  to  honor 
Washington,  because  in  his  life  they  think 
they  have  a  demonstration  that  right  is 
might." — Edward  Everett  Hale. 

"It  is  refreshing  to  find  that  he  some- 
times departed  from  the  solemn,  dull,  con- 
ventional language  of  State  papers,  and 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    277 

calls  the  British  soldiers  'Red  Coats,'  and 
General  Putnam  'Old  Put;'  talks  of  'kick- 
ing up  some  dust,'  'making  a  rumpus,'  of 
nominating  'men  not  fit  for  shoe-blacks;' 
speaks  of  'the  rascally  Puritanism  of  New 
England,'  and  'the  rascally  Tories;'  'a 
scoundrel  from  Marblehead — a  man  of 
property.'  But,  in  general,  his  style  is 
plain  and  business-like,  without  fancy  or 
figure  of  speech." — Theodore  Parker. 

"He  had  every  title  to  command. 
Heaven,  in  giving  him  the  higher  qualities 
of  the  soul,  had  given  also  the  tumultuous 
passions  which  accompany  greatness  and 
frequently  tarnish  its  luster.  With  them 
was  his  first  contest,  and  his  first  victory 
was  over  himself." — Gouverneur  Morris. 

"A  conqueror  for  the  freedom  of  his 
country;  a  legislator  for  its  security;  a 
magistrate  for  its  happiness,  with  no  self- 


278          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

ish     ambition     or     criminal     thirst     for 
power." — London  Courier. 

"He  loved  his  country  well  enough  to 
hold  his  success  in  serving  it  an  ample 
recompense.  But  when  his  country 
needed  sacrifices  that  no  other  man  could 
or  perhaps  would  make,  he  did  not  even 
hesitate.  This  was  virtue  in  its  most  ex- 
alted character.  .  .  . 

"More  than  once  he  put  his  fame  at 
hazard,  when  he  had  reason  to  think  it 
would  be  sacrificed,  at  least  in  his  age. 
Two  instances  can  not  be  denied:  First, 
when  the  army  was  disbanded;  and,  sec- 
ond, when  he  stood,  like  Leonidas  at  the 
Pass  of  Thermopylae,  to  defend  our  inde- 
pendence against  France.  .  .  . 

"The  unambitious  life  of  Washington, 
declining  fame,  yet  courted  by  it,  seemed 
like  his  own  Potomac,  widening  and  deep- 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    279 

ening  his  channel  as  he  approached  the 
sea,  and  displaying  the  usefulness  and  se- 
renity of  his  greatness  towards  the  end  of 
his  course." — Fisher  Ames. 

"He  did  the  two  greatest  things  which, 
in  politics,  man  can  have  the  privilege  of 
attempting.  He  maintained,  by  peace, 
that  independence  of  his  country  which 
he  had  acquired  by  war.  He  founded  a* 
free  Government  in  the  name  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  order,  and  by  re-establishing 
their  sway;  both  tasks  were  accomplished 
when  he  '"etired  from  public  life." — Guizot. 

"England  has  some  share  in  his  glory. 
Although  she  can  not  number  him  among 
those  who  have  extended  her  provinces 
or  augmented  her  dominions,  she  may 
at  least  feel  a  legitimate  pride  in  the  vic- 
tories he  achieved,  in  the  great  qualities 
he  exhibited  in  the  contest  with  herself, 


280          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

and  indulge  with  satisfaction  in  the  re- 
flection that  the  vast  empire  which  neither 
the  ambition  of  Louis  XIV  nor  the  power 
of  Napoleon  could  dismember,  received 
its  first  shock  from  the  courage  which  she 
had  communicated  to  her  own  offspring, 
and  that  real  liberty  has  arisen  in  that  na- 
tion alone  which  inherited  in  its  veins  the 
genuine  principle  of  British  freedom."- 
Arcliibald  Alison. 

"Never  in  the  tide  of  time  has  any  man 
lived  who  had  in  so  great  a  degree  the 
almost  divine  faculty  to  command  the 
confidence  of  his  fellow-men,  and  rule  the 
willing.  Wherever  he  became  known — 
in  his  family,  in  his  neighborhood,  his 
county,  his  native  State,  the  continent,  the 
camp,  the  civil  life,  the  United  States, 
among  common  people,  in  foreign  courts 
throughout  the  civilized  world  of  the  hu- 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    281 

man  race,  and  even  among  savages — he, 
beyond  all  other  men,  had  the  confidence 
of  his  kind." — George  Bancroft. 

"It  will  be  the  duty  of  the  historian 
and  the  sage  in  all  ages  to  omit  no  occa- 
sion of  commemorating  this  illustrious 
man,  and  until  time  shall  be  no  more  will 
a  test  of  the  progress  which  our  race  has 
made  in  wisdom  and  virtue  be  derived 
from  the  veneration  paid  to  the  immortal 
name  of  Washington." — Lord  Brougham. 

Providence  left  him  childless,  that  his 
country  might  call  him  father." — H.  T. 
Tuckerman. 

"To  the  appointment  of  Washington, 
far  more  than  to  any  other  single  circum- 
stance, is  due  the  ultimate  success  of  the 
American  Revolution,  though  in  purely 
intellectual  powers  Washington  was  cer- 


282          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

tainly  inferior  to  Franklin  and  perhaps 
to  two  or  three  other  of  his  colleagues." — 
William  E.  H.  Lecky. 

"What  manner  of  people  ought  we  to 
be  in  return  for  this  great  gift?  We  may 
bring  forth  others  like  him.  There  is  more 
hope,  not  less  of  another  Washington, 
from  having  had  the  first.  We  say  of  a 
great  genius  like  Shakespeare  or  Raph- 
ael, that  he  is  inimitable.  But  Washing- 
ton  was  not  a  genius  in  the  ordinary  ac- 
ceptation of  that  term.  His  perfections 
are  imitable,  on  an  humbler  scale.  Per- 
sonal integrity,  indefatigable  industry,  de- 
ferring self  to  duty,  true  brotherhood 
towards  mankind,  and  a  sincere  desire  to 
co-operate  with  God  in  doing  good,  may 
make  many  a  Washington  of  whom  the 
world  may  never  hear."  —  Caroline  M. 
Kirkland. 


SAYINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON,    283 

"George  Washington  will  always  re- 
ceive the  love  and  reverence  of  men,  be- 
cause they  see  embodied  in  him  the 
noblest  possibilities  of  humanity."  — 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 

"Washington  served  us  chiefly  by  his 
sublime  moral  qualities.  To  him  be- 
longed the  proud  distinction  of  being  the 
leader  of  a  revolution,  without  awaken- 
ing one  doubt  or  solicitude  as  to  the  spot- 
less purity  of  his  purpose.  His  was  the 
glory  of  being  the  brightest  manifestation 
of  the  spirit  which  reigned  in  this  country; 
and  in  this  way  he  became  a  source  of 
energy,  a  bond  of  union,  the  center  of  an 
enlightened  people's  confidence." — Will- 
iam E.  Channing. 

"From  1749  till  1784,  and  from  1789 
till  1797,  or  a  period  of  forty  years,  Wash- 
ington filled  offices  of  one  kind  or  another, 


284          GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

and  when  he  died  he  still  held  a  commis- 
sion. Thus,  excluding  his  boyhood,  there 
were  but  seven  years  of  his  life  in  which 
he  was  not  engaged  in  public  service. 
Even  after  his  retirement  from  the  Presi- 
dency, he  served  on  a  grand  jury,  and 
before  this  he  had  several  times  acted  as 
petit  juror.  In  another  way  he  was  a  good 
citizen,  for  when  at  Mount  Vernon  he  in- 
variably attended  the  election,  rain  or 
shine,  though  it  was  a  ride  of  ten  miles 
to  the  polling  town." — Paul  Leicester 
Ford. 

"He  rode  upon  his  farms  entirely  un- 
attended. Mr.  Custis,  his  adopted  son, 
gave  this  direction  to  a  gentleman  who 
was  out  in  search  of  Washington:  'You 
will  meet,  sir,  with  an  old  gentleman  rid- 
ing alone,  in  plain,  drab  clothes,  a  broad- 
brimmed,  white  hat,  a  hickory  switch  in 


SAVINGS  ABOUT  WASHINGTON.    285 

his  hand,  and  carrying  an  umbrella  with 
a  long  staff,  which  is  attached  to  his 
saddle-bow — that  person,  sir,  is  General 
Washington.' 

"So  carefully  did  Washington  manage 
his  farms,  that  they  became  very  produc- 
tive. So  noted  were  these  products  for 
their  quality,  and  so  faithfully  were  they 
put  up,  that  any  barrel  of  flour  bearing 
the  brand,  'GEO.  WASHINGTON,  MOUNT 
VERNON,'  was  exempted  from  customary 
inspection  in  British  West  India  ports." 

Erskine,  so  chary  of  his  praise,  so  slow 
of  faith  in  his  fellows,  inscribed  in  a  set  of 
his  works  as  a  present  to  Washington: 
"You,  sir,  are  the  only  individual  for 
whom  I  ever  felt  an  awful  reverence." 

"He  was  a  sincere  believer  in  the  Chris- 
tian faith." — Chief-Justice  Marshall. 


286  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

"A  Christian  in  faith  and  practice." — 
fared  Sparks. 

"I  am  not  surprised  at  what  George  has 
done.     He  was  always  a  good  boy." — 

Washington's  Mother. 

"This  is  the  one  hundred  and  tenth  an- 
niversary of  the  birthday  of  Washington. 
We  are  met  to  celebrate  this  day.  Wash- 
ington is  the  mightiest  name  of  earth — 
long  since  mightiest  in  the  cause  of  civil 
liberty,  still  mightiest  in  moral  reforma- 
tion. On  that  name  a  eulogy  is  expected. 
It  can  not  be.  To  add  brightness  to  the 
sun  or  glory  to  the  name  of  Washington 
is  alike  impossible.  Let  none  attempt  it. 
In  solemn  awe  pronounce  the  name,  and 
let  its  naked,  deathless  splendor  leave  i 
shining  on." — Abraham  Lincoln. 


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